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Measurement of liver iron concentration by MRI is reproducible
José María Alústiza1, José I Emparanza2, Agustín Castiella3
1Osatek, Donostia Universitary Hospital, P. Dr. Beguiristain 109, 20014 Donostia/San Sebastián, Spain.
Purpose:
The objectives were (i) construction of a phantom to reproduce the behavior of iron overload in the liver by MRI and (ii) assessment of the variability of a previously validated method to quantify liver iron concentration between different MRI devices using the phantom and patients.
Materials And Methods:
A phantom reproducing the liver/muscle ratios of two patients with intermediate and high iron overload. Nine patients with different levels of iron overload were studied in 4 multivendor devices and 8 of them were studied twice in the machine where the model was developed. The phantom was analysed in the same equipment and 14 times in the reference machine.
Results:
FeCl3 solutions containing 0.3, 0.5, 0.6, and 1.2 mg Fe/mL were chosen to generate the phantom. The average of the intramachine variability for patients was 10% and for the intermachines 8%. For the phantom the intramachine coefficient of variation was always below 0.1 and the average of intermachine variability was 10% for moderate and 5% for high iron overload.
Conclusion:
The phantom reproduces the behavior of patients with moderate or high iron overload. The proposed method of calculating liver iron concentration is reproducible in several different 1.5 T systems.
