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Updated: May 16, 2026
A 3D Quantification Technique for Liver Fat Fraction Distribution Analysis Using Dixon Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Published on: October 20, 2023
Comparison of R2* correction methods for accurate fat quantification in fatty liver
Debra E Horng1, Diego Hernando, Catherine D G Hines
1Department of Radiology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53792-3252, USA.
Purpose:
To compare the performance of fat fraction quantification using single-R(2)* and dual-R(2)* correction methods in patients with fatty liver, using MR spectroscopy (MRS) as the reference standard.
Materials And Methods:
From a group of 97 patients, 32 patients with hepatic fat fraction greater than 5%, as measured by MRS, were identified. In these patients, chemical shift encoded fat-water imaging was performed, covering the entire liver in a single breathhold. Fat fraction was measured from the imaging data by postprocessing using 6 different models: single- and dual-R(2)* correction, each performed with complex fitting, magnitude fitting, and mixed magnitude/complex fitting to compare the effects of phase error correction. Fat fraction measurements were compared with co-registered spectroscopy measurements using linear regression.
Results:
Linear regression demonstrated higher agreement with MRS using single-R(2)* correction compared with dual-R(2)* correction. Among single-R(2)* models, all 3 fittings methods performed similarly well (slope = 1.0 ± 0.06, r(2) = 0.89-0.91).
Conclusion:
Single-R(2)* modeling is more accurate than dual-R(2)* modeling for hepatic fat quantification in patients, even in those with high hepatic fat concentrations.
