How Much Fat Is Under the Water Peak in Liver Fat MR Spectroscopy?

Michael Simca Middleton¹, Gavin Hamilton¹, Mark Bydder¹, Claude B. Sirlin¹

Accurate MRS liver fat quantitation requires determination of signal from fat peaks that are near or under the water peak. As reported in the literature, the amount of fat in those peaks is determined by fatty acid chain length, number of carbon double bonds, and number of carbon double bonds separated by a single -CH₂- group. We validated that we could predict, from the corn oil 0-3 ppm spectrum, the amount of fat that would be under the water peak, and applied that method for in-vivo human liver MRS data to estimate the amount of fat under the water peak.