Abstract #0335

Motion-Robust, Free-Breathing, High-SNR Liver Fat Quantification Using a Variable Flip Angle Approach and Motion-Corrected Averaging

Jitka Starekova¹, Ruiyang Zhao^1,2, Timothy J Colgan¹, Kevin M Johnson^1,2, Jennifer L Rehm³, Scott B Reeder^1,2,4,5,6, and Diego Hernando^1,2

¹Department of Radiology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Madison, WI, United States, ²Department of Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Madison, WI, United States, ³Department of Pediatrics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Madison, WI, United States, ⁴Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Madison, WI, United States, ⁵Department of Medicine, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Madison, WI, United States, ⁶Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Madison, WI, United States

Chemical shift-encoded (CSE)-MRI enables accurate and precise quantification of proton density fat-fraction (PDFF) in the liver. Widely used 3D multi-echo spoiled gradient echo (SGRE) CSE-MRI requires reliable breath-holding to avoid motion-related artifacts. This is a major limitation for children, the elderly, and sick patients. Free-breathing 2D sequential CSE-MRI is motion-robust, however, suffers from low signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR). To overcome these limitations, we combined variable flip angle (VFA) 2D acquisitions and nonlocal means (NLM) motion-corrected averaging. In this prospective study, free-breathing multi-repetition VFA-NLM demonstrated high SNR and reduced artifacts compared to the conventional 3D-SGRE, while preserving accuracy of PDFF quantification.

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