E. Brian Welch1,2, Johan Berglund3,
Heidi J. Silver4, Kevin D. Niswender5, Morten Bruvold6,
Joel Kullberg3, Lars Johansson3, Malcolm J. Avison1
1Vanderbilt University Institute of
Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United
States; 2MR Clinical Science, Philips Healthcare, Highland
Heights, OH, United States; 3Department of Radiology, Uppsala
University, Uppsala, Sweden; 4Vanderbilt Center for Human
Nutrition, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United
States; 5Vanderbilt Diabetes Research and Training Center,
Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States; 6MR
Clinical Science, Philips Healthcare, Best, Netherlands
The
potential of whole body MRI for visualizing adipose tissue distribution has
long been recognized. More recently, multi-gradient-echo MR acquisitions have
been successfully used at 1.5 Tesla to quickly acquire whole-body data sets.
Automated segmentation and quantification of such whole-body fat images into
subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue compartments shows great promise as
a tool in studies of obesity and other metabolic syndrome diseases such as
diabetes. Most whole-body fat-water imaging has been performed at 1.5 Tesla.
However, the availability and prevalence of higher strength 3 Tesla scanners,
especially in research settings, justifies the pursuit of robust
multi-gradient-echo sequences designed to operate at 3 Tesla. Here we present
initial results of a 3T multi-gradient echo whole-body fat-water sequence.