# Non-invasive hepatic fat quantification: Can multi-echo Dixon help?

## TL;DR

This study shows that multi-echo Dixon MRI is highly accurate for measuring liver fat compared to the gold standard MRS, making it a practical and accessible tool.

## Contribution

The study demonstrates the diagnostic accuracy of multi-echo Dixon MRI for hepatic fat quantification in comparison to MRS.

## Key findings

- Multi-echo Dixon MRI showed very strong correlation and good agreement with MRS for hepatic fat quantification.
- The technique is effective even when liver fat distribution is not homogeneous.
- A moderate positive correlation was found between hepatic fat fraction and BMI.

## Abstract

To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of multi-echo Dixon magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) in hepatic fat quantification, in comparison with that of
magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), on 3.0-T MRI.

Fifty-five adults with no known liver disease underwent MRI in a 3.0-T
scanner for determination of the hepatic fat fraction, with two techniques:
multi-echo Dixon, in a manually drawn region of interest (ROI) and in the
entire liver parenchyma (automated segmentation); and MRS. The diagnostic
accuracy and cutoff value for multi-echo Dixon were determined, with MRS
being used as the reference standard.

The mean fat fraction obtained by multi-echo Dixon in the manually drawn ROI
and in the entire liver was 5.2 ± 5.8% and 6.6 ± 5.2%,
respectively, whereas the mean hepatic fat fraction obtained by MRS was 5.7
± 6.4%. A very strong positive correlation and good agreement were
observed between MRS and multi-echo Dixon, for the ROI (r = 0.988,
r2 = 0.978, p < 0.001) and for the entire
liver parenchyma (r = 0.960, r2 = 0.922, p <
0.001). A moderate positive correlation was observed between the hepatic fat
fraction and body mass index of the participants, regardless of the fat
estimation technique employed.

For hepatic fat quantification, multi-echo Dixon MRI demonstrated a very
strong positive correlation and good agreement with MRS (often considered
the gold-standard noninvasive technique). Because multi-echo Dixon MRI is
more readily available than is MRS, it can be used as a rapid tool for
hepatic fat quantification, especially when the hepatic fat distribution is
not homogeneous.