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Updated: Dec 30, 2025
Fat-Water Phantoms for Magnetic Resonance Imaging Validation: A Flexible and Scalable Protocol
Published on: September 7, 2018
Practical Approaches to Bone Marrow Fat Fraction Quantification Across Magnetic Resonance Imaging Platforms
Alan Bainbridge1, Timothy J P Bray2, Raj Sengupta3
1Department of Medical Physics, University College London Hospitals, London, UK.
Background:
Quantification of fat by proton density fat fraction (PDFF) measurements may be valuable for the quantification and follow-up of pathology in multicenter clinical trials and routine practice. However, many centers do not have access to specialist methods (such as chemical shift imaging) for PDFF measurement. This is a barrier to more widespread trial implementation.
Purpose/Hypothesis:
To determine the agreement between fat fraction (FF) measurements derived from 1) basic vendor-supplied sequences, 2) basic sequences with offline correction, and 3) specialist vendor-supplied methods.
Study Type:
Prospective.
Population:
Two substudies with ten and five healthy volunteers.
Field Strength/Sequence:
Site A: mDixon Quant (Philips 3T Ingenia); Site B: IDEAL and FLEX (GE 1.5T Optima MR450W); Site C: DIXON, with additional 5-echo gradient echo acquisition for offline correction (Siemens 3T Skyra); Site D: DIXON, with additional VIBE acquisitions for offline correction (Siemens 1.5T Avanto). The specialist method at site A was used as a standard to compare to the basic methods at sites B, C, and D.
Assessment:
Regions of interest were placed on areas of subchondral bone on FF maps from the various methods in each volunteer.
Statistical Tests:
Relationships between FF measurements from the various sites and Dixon methods were assessed using Bland-Altman analysis and linear regression.
Results:
Basic methods consisting of IDEAL, LAVA FLEX, and DIXON produced FF values that were linearly related to reference FF values (P < 0.0001), but produced mean biases of up to 10%. Offline correction produced a significant reduction in bias in both substudies (P < 0.001).
Data Conclusion:
FF measurements derived using basic vendor-supplied methods are strongly linearly related with those derived using specialist methods but produce a bias of up to 10%. A simple offline correction that is accessible even when the scanner has only basic sequence options can significantly reduce bias.
Level Of Evidence:
2 Technical Efficacy Stage: 1 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2020;52:298-306.
