Quantitative Assessment of the Inter- & Intra-Muscle Fat Fraction Variability in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Patients

Beatrijs Wokke¹, Janneke van den Bergen¹, Annemieke Aartsma-Rus², Andrew Webb³, Jan Verschuuren¹, Hermien Kan³

Quantitative assessment of fatty infiltration in 18 muscles in the upper and lower leg of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) patients showed large variation in fat fractions between the analyzed muscles as well as variation between distal and proximal regions in several muscles in the lower leg. In a potential longitudinal study of DMD patients, analyzing only the most and least affected muscle could provide adequate information for monitoring. However, for the analysis of some muscles multiple slices should be acquired to prevent an under- or overestimation of the fat fraction.