Abstract #0864

Glucose & Intralipid Infusion in Rats: Comparative Quantification of Liver Steatosis by MRI, MRS & Histopathology

Gaspard d'Assignies^1,2, Ghislaine Fonts^3,4, Louis Gaboury, Yvan Boulanger⁵, Gilles Soulez³, Vincent Poitout^3,4, An Tang⁶

¹Department of Medical Imaging, Hpital Saint-Luc, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; ²Department of Radiology, Beaujon Hospital, Universit Paris VII, Paris, France; ³CRCHUM, Canada; ⁴Montral Diabetes Research Center, Canada; ⁵Hpital Saint-Luc, University of Montreal; ⁶Department of Medical Imaging, CRCHUM, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

This study compares quantification of liver steatosis by MRI and histopathology by using MRS as the reference standard for the discrimination of three rat phenotypes assigned to an experimental glucolipotoxic steatosis model or a control group. A significant correlation was found between dual-echo MRI and MRS. A weaker correlation was found between histopathology and MRS. MRI and MRS accurately distinguished the rats receiving the infusion of glucose + Intralipid from those receiving the saline control, whereas histology did not. Although many authors use histopathology as the gold standard, vacuolar degeneration and glycogen may limit its accuracy for liver fat quantification.