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Abstract #2999

Noninvasive Quantification of Hepatic Steatosis in Rats with 1.5T MRS & MRI: Feasibility, Early Results & Optimization

Gaspard d'Assignies1,2, Ghislaine Fonts3,4, Louis Gaboury5, Yvan Boulanger4,6, Gilles Soulez7, Vincent Poitout3,4, An Tang8

1Radiology, Hpital Saint-Luc, Montreal, France; 2Beaujon Hospital, Universit Paris VII, Canada; 3Montral Diabetes Research Center, Canada; 4CRCHUM, Canada; 5Department of Anatomo-Pathology, CHUM, Canada; 6Radiology, Hpital Saint-Luc, Canada; 7Radiology, CRCHUM, Canada; 8Radiology, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada


The purpose of the study is to validate and optimize a routine 1.5T MRI method to detect and measure liver steatosis in an experimental glucolipotoxic rat model by using 1H-MR spectroscopy as the reference standard. Two 20 and 90 flip angle (FA) were applied on the dual echo in/out of phase sequence and T2* was calculated. MRI and 1H-MRS accurately distinguished steatotic from non steatotic liver. A significant correlation was found between dual-echo MRI and MRS. This correlation was higher with 90 (r = 0.749, P < 0.001) than with 20 FA (r = 0.651, P < 0.001). T2* correction did not improve the correlation with 1H-MRS.