Magnetic resonance imaging of autologous fat grafting

A 30-year-old female patient with isolated facial lipodystrophy underwent two sessions of fat injection. MR signals of injected fat at different injection ages were compared to native fat. Native T1 signal was smaller for transplant fat, probably due to a slightly lower fat content and/or fibrosis or due to higher perfusion. T2 signal of transplants was significantly higher than that of native fat. T1 post-contrast was also higher, and contrast uptake of transplanted fat increased slightly with transplant age, which could be explained by an increasing perfusion. This study demonstrates the differences and MR signal time changes of native and transplanted fat.