Comparison of fat quantification methods: A phantom study at 3.0T

PURPOSE: To compare different imaging methods with single-voxel MR spectroscopy (MRS) for the quantification of fat content in phantoms at 3.0T. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Imaging and spectroscopy was performed on a GE Signa system. Eleven novel homogeneous fat-water phantoms were constructed with variation in fat content from 0% to 100%. These were imaged using three techniques and compared with single-voxel non-water-suppressed MRS. Pixel-by-pixel maps of fat fraction were produced and mean values compared to MRS-determined measurements. Preliminary in vivo examinations were subsequently performed in the breast and spine to compare the best imaging technique with MRS. RESULTS: All imaging methods significantly correlated with MRS (P < 0.001): IDEAL (r(2) = 0.985), IOP (r(2) = 0.888), WS (r(2) = 0.939), and FS (r(2) = 0.938). In addition, IDEAL provided artifact-free maps of fat fraction with superior uniformity. In vivo results using IDEAL produced values that were between 9% to 16% of the corresponding MRS values. CONCLUSION: This work demonstrates that imaging may be utilized as a high-resolution alternative to MRS for the quantification of fat content. In the future we intend to replace MRS with IDEAL in our clinical studies involving fat measurement.