Maria a Schmidt1, Antonio de Stefano2,
Erica Scurr1, James d'Arcy1, Martin O. Leach1
1Cancer Research UK &
EPSRC Cancer Imaging Centre, Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust &
Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, England, United Kingdom; 2Medical
Physics, Portsmouth NHS Hospitals Trust, Portsmouth, England, United Kingdom
Quantitative measurements of water and fat content are desirable for the assessment of breast density, a known risk factor in breast cancer. Dixon methods produce high-resolution separate fat and water images of high-resolution, but longitudinal changes in image intensity can be attributed to either T1 or proton density changes. We optimised data acquisition parameters to produce separate proton density maps for fat and water from Dixon images acquired with different flip angles. Monte-Carlo results were confirmed in test object studies, and implemented for breast examinations, providing a valuable tool for clinical studies.