Greg O. Cron1,
2, Ryan J. Mailloux3, Mary-Ellen Harper3, Ian G.
Cameron1, 2, Mark E. Schweitzer1, 2
1Ottawa
Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; 2Radiology,
University of Ottawa; 3Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Immunology,
University of Ottawa
Obesity is an increasing public health concern. MR is the most commonly used imaging modality to follow obesity-related disorders in vivo. A crucial component of such research is in vivo quantitative assessment, as well as compartmental localization, of body fat, to allow longitudinal follow up. Unfortunately, there exists no widely available, universally agreed-upon MR imaging method for measuring fat, especially for very high-field scanners with consequent B0 inhomogeneity issues. We developed a Fourier-based MRI fat quantification technique for use on whole mice at 7T. The technique correlates strongly with phantom and mouse dissection data and is straightforward to implement.