In-vivo liver proton density fat fraction quantification at 0.55 T: a pilot study with comparison against 3 T MRI

作者：Rochelle Wong, Bilal Taşdelen, Ye Tian, Darryl Hwang, Sophia Cui, Liyun Yuan, Krishna S. Nayak · 发表于：Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics Biology and Medicine · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1007/s10334-025-01277-9 · 被引用次数：2 · 研究领域：Liver Disease Diagnosis and Treatment、Advanced MRI Techniques and Applications、Liver Disease and Transplantation

BACKGROUND: Proton density fat fraction (PDFF)- the ratio of unconfounded fat signal to the sum of the unconfounded fat and water signals, is a valuable quantitative imaging biomarker of metabolic associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) widely applied in clinical practice and clinical trials. PDFF of the liver is commonly measured using 3 T MRI systems. However, low-field systems are increasingly favored due to lower cost, improved safety profile, minimized artifacts around metallic implants, and enhanced patient comfort. OBJECTIVE: In this pilot study, we used knowledge of standardized and widely used 3 T liver PDFF protocols, and adapted parameters to be appropriate for the 0.55 T MRI. We evaluate a liver fat quantification protocol at 0.55 T compared to a standard clinical 3 T protocol to measure liver fat in patients with MASLD. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Eight adult patients (average age 53.6 ± 13.6 years, 5 females) with ≥ 5% PDFF on 3 T MRI underwent a 0.55 T MRI PDFF protocol within 90 days. To keep the acquisition time to be within a reasonable breath hold duration and with reasonable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), four echoes were acquired at a lower resolution and fewer number of slices at 0.55 T compared to 3 T which uses a 6-echo multi-echo Dixon volumetric interpolated breath hold examination (VIBE) protocol. PDFF quantification accuracy of the 0.55 T approach was evaluated using a commercial PDFF phantom and in vivo. RESULTS: > 0.999) between PDFF estimated by 0.55...