Free-Breathing Liver Iron Quantification Using 3D Stack-of-Radial GRE Dixon MRI at Two Field Strengths: A Preliminary Study

This study compared free-breathing stack-of-radial and breath-hold Cartesian multi-echo GRE MRI for liver iron quantification at 1.5T and 3T to the reference standard R2-based liver iron concentration (LIC) at 1.5T (FerriScan), in patients at risk for liver iron overload. Agreement was observed for liver iron concentration measured by free-breathing 3D stack-of-radial GRE MRI compared the reference standard R2-based LIC, as well as breath-hold 3D Cartesian GRE MRI. With further validation in larger number of iron-overloaded subjects, 3D stack-of-radial GRE MRI may allow free-breathing R2* and LIC mapping at both 1.5T and 3T.