Abstract #0403

Comparing Brown Adipose Tissue in Infants and Teenagers by Chemical-Shift Water-Fat MRI

Houchun Harry Hu¹, Larry Yin², Thomas G. Perkins³, Jonathan M. Chia³, Patricia Aggabao¹, Vicente Gilsanz¹

¹Radiology, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States; ²General Pediatrics, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States; ³Philips Healthcare, Cleveland, OH, United States

This work compares brown adipose tissue (BAT) fat-signal fractions (FFs) and T₂* values in nine infants (1.51.8m) and eighteen teenagers (12.51.9y). The teenagers were further divided into two sub-groups based on body-mass-index (BMI). mDIXON water-fat MRI was used to quantify FFs and T₂* values in supraclavicular BAT depots on a 3T system. Infants had lower FFs than teenagers (36.08.2% vs. 68.712.2%, p<0.001), but T₂* values were similar (18.72.6 vs. 17.23.8ms, p=0.29). Overweight teenagers had higher FFs (76.58.2% vs. 60.910.6%, p=0.003) and T₂* values (19.04.2 vs. 15.32.1ms, p=0.031) than leaner subjects. FF and T₂* values correlated with BMI (p<0.01) in teenagers.