Houchun Harry Hu1, Krishna S. Nayak1
1Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
This work investigates potential bias in the T1 spin-lattice relaxation constant between pure fat and fat in mixture with water and lean tissue. We present results obtained at 3 Tesla from fat-water emulsions, ground pork meat, and in vivo experiments that suggest the existence of this additional T1 bias in fat. We observed the apparent T1 of fats to increase from their natural, pure-form T1 (200-350 ms at 3 Tesla) by as much as two to three-fold, when fat was in relatively homogenous mixtures characterized by fat-water signal fractions of less than 40%.