ISSN# 1545-4428 | Published date: 19 May, 2023
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At-A-Glance Session Detail
   
MRI Quantification of Fat: Techniques, Challenges & Clinical Implications
Weekend Course
ORGANIZERS: Jonathan Dillman, Christian Federau, Daniel Moses, Dan Wu
Sunday, 04 June 2023
714A/B
13:15 -  17:05
Moderators: Claudia Hillenbrand & Shintaro Ichikawa
Skill Level: Intermediate
Session Number: WE-29
CME Credit

Session Number: WE-29

Overview
Excess or reduced fat throughout the body or within specific organs can have significant clinical implications. This session examines how MRI can be useful in quantifying fat and some of the technical challenges in obtaining such measurements.

Target Audience
Scientists, trainees, and M.D.s interested in fat imaging and quantification.




Educational Objectives
As a result of attending this course, participants should be able to:
- Explain the principles of quantification of fat using MRI;
- Recognize organ-specific challenges and clinical implications of MR fat quantification; and
- Examine strategies that allow optimization of the MRI scanning of obese patients.

13:15 Technical Aspect of Fat Quantification
Timothy Bray

Keywords: Contrast mechanisms: Fat

This talk will give an overview of methods for quantifying fat with MRI. MRI-based methods have emerged as valuable tools for assessing the fat content of tissue in a wide variety of organs and disease states, and can also provide fat-corrected measurements of other tissue characteristics such as relaxation times and diffusion coefficients. The basic principles of quantifying fat with MRI will be discussed, and methods for eliminating bias in fat quantification will be explained. Opportunities for future development including the inclusion of fat quantification within multiparametric acquisitions and the use of deep learning in fat quantification will be considered.
13:45 Whole-Body Fat Quantification
Martin Buechert

Keywords: Cross-organ: Obesity, Cross-organ: Tissue characterisation, Image acquisition: Whole body

As part of the course MRI Quantification of Fat: Techniques, Challenges & Clinical Implications, this session will focus on whole body fat quantification. An overview of the available modalities will be given before a closer look is taken at whole body fat quantification using magnetic resonance imaging. The second point of view will be from the perspective of different applications including clinical as well as research within epidemiological studies with large data sets.

As a complement to the previous technical introductory course, we also consider fat-water MR spectroscopy. It can be used in addition to fat-water imaging for more precise local characterisation of adipose tissue.
14:15Organ-Specific Fat Quantification: Liver & Pancreas
Ilkay Idilman

Keywords: Body: Liver, Cross-organ: Obesity, Cross-organ: Metabolic disease

Organ-Specific Fat Quantification: Liver and Pancreas

Hepatic steatosis is the abnormal accumulation of triglycerides in the hepatocytes whereas a fatty pancreas is the abnormal pancreatic fat accumulation. Both are shown to be associated with metabolic syndrome, Type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. The main approach to quantifying liver and pancreas fat is chemical shift magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques. MRI-proton density fat fraction (MRI-PDFF) is shown to be an excellent diagnostic value for the assessment of hepatic fat content and classification of histologic steatosis grades in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.  

14:45 Break & Meet the Teachers
15:05 Organ-Specific Fat Quantification: Epicardium
Markus Henningsson

Keywords: Cross-organ: Metabolic disease, Cardiovascular: Cardiac metabolism, Contrast mechanisms: Fat

Epicardial fat is an early marker of many cardiovascular diseases, in particular atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. This presentation will focus on current MRI strategies to assess epicardial fat. I will discuss technical challenges as it relates to imaging epicardial fat and highlight potential avenues for further technical and clinical research.  
15:35 Organ-Specific Fat Quantification: Skeletal Muscle
Young Cheol Yoon

Keywords: Cross-organ: Tissue characterisation, Musculoskeletal: Muscular, Contrast mechanisms: Fat

The accumulation of lipids in skeletal muscle can lead to various health issues. Currently, semiquantitative methods like the Goutallier and Mercuri systems are used to evaluate fatty infiltration, but they have limitations. MRS is more reliable for measuring lipid content, but several factors must be considered during data acquisition. PDFF is an emerging technique that generates fat fraction maps, allowing for direct quantitative measurement of fat proportion. T2*-corrected six-echo Dixon sequences are recommended. PDFF is the most commonly used metric for estimating skeletal muscle quality, and studies have shown its usefulness in various clinical conditions, including sarcopenia and neuromuscular diseases.
16:05 Strategies for Optimizing the MRI Scanning of the Obese Patient
Raul Uppot
16:35 Panel Discussion