Within the last decade, the scientific interest in brown adipose tissue (BAT) was greatly invigorated by the discovery of functional BAT in adult humans. Importantly, reduced BAT activity has recently been associated with predisposition to obesity and abnormal glucose homeostasis. The current gold standard for functional BAT imaging is CT-guided 18FDG-PET. Here, we describe a robust T2 mapping method to assess the metabolic activity of BAT independent of substrate selection and without the need of harmful radiation or contrast agents. Compared to previous T2*-based techniques the present approach is less prone to susceptibility and physiological artifacts especially at high fields.
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