Simultaneous quantification of fat content and fatty acid composition using MR imaging.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Imaging
• Medical Physics
• Biochemistry

Background:

• Fatty acid (FA) composition in triglycerides is crucial for understanding nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
• Current methods for quantifying fat content and FA composition have limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel imaging method for simultaneous quantification of fat fraction (FF) and FA composition (chain length, number of double bonds, number of methylene-interrupted double bonds).
• To assess the accuracy of the proposed method compared to spectroscopy.

Main Methods:

• A novel reconstruction approach utilizing theoretical knowledge of FA chemical structures was developed.
• Multiple gradient echo images were acquired from 20 phantoms with varying FF and FA compositions.
• Phantom data were compared against spectroscopy measurements using slopes and standard deviations from true values.

Main Results:

• The developed imaging method accurately quantified FF and FA composition (cl, ndb, nmidb) in phantoms.
• The imaging method demonstrated comparable accuracy to the established spectroscopy method.
• Successful in vivo demonstration of the method in thigh adipose tissue of a healthy volunteer.

Conclusions:

• The novel imaging method is a promising tool for accurate FF and FA composition quantification.
• This technique has potential applications in NAFLD and NASH research.
• The method offers a non-invasive approach to assess triglyceride composition.