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Updated: Feb 26, 2026
Fat-Water Phantoms for Magnetic Resonance Imaging Validation: A Flexible and Scalable Protocol
Published on: September 7, 2018
Reliable quantification of marrow fat content and unsaturation level using in vivo MR spectroscopy
Kaipin Xu1, Sigurdur Sigurdsson2, Vilmundur Gudnason2,3
1Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
Purpose:
To develop a novel technique for reliable quantification of bone marrow fat content and composition using in vivo MR spectroscopy (MRS).
Methods:
An MRS quantification method combining both advantages of Voigt line shape model and time-domain analysis was developed. The proposed method was tested using computer-simulated data and in vivo data acquired at lumbar vertebral bodies of 23 subjects (age, 83.8 ± 3.7 y; male, n = 13; female, n = 10) from L1 to L4. Reliability and reproducibility were calculated for the quantification results. Comparisons between the proposed method and some conventional methods were conducted.
Results:
Low mean absolute percentage errors and low mean coefficients of variation for computer simulations suggest that the proposed method is accurate and precise. By using this method, marrow fat content can be quantified reliably, even for data with low spectral resolution and low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Unsaturation level can be reliably quantified for data with moderate spectral resolution and moderate SNR. Results obtained from in vivo data using the proposed method demonstrated better model fit than conventional methods.
Conclusion:
The method proposed in this study has better performance than conventional methods in the quantification of bone marrow MRS data and has great potential for wide applications of studying marrow fat content and composition. Magn Reson Med 79:1722-1729, 2018. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.
