Michel Louis Lauzon1, 2, Farzana Sayani3, Karen Valentine3, Richard Frayne1, 2, Houman Mahallati1, 2
1Radiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; 2Seaman Family MR Research Centre, Calgary, AB, Canada; 3Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
The current gold standard for quantification of liver iron content (LIC) in iron-overloaded states is liver biopsy, an invasive and potentially risky procedure. Safe non-invasive MR-based methods of measuring LIC are promising alternatives. Here, we quantify LIC using a multi-echo single breath-hold T2*-weighted spoiled gradient-recalled echo sequence at 3.0 T, and compare the results to biopsy. The mean MR-derived LIC estimates were similar to biopsy (to within 2.5 mg of iron per gram of dry liver weight), and MR covered a much larger liver extent than biopsy, had a stringent confidence interval, and was well tolerated by patients.