Abstract #2999

Noninvasive Quantification of Hepatic Steatosis in Rats with 1.5T MRS & MRI: Feasibility, Early Results & Optimization

Gaspard d'Assignies^1,2, Ghislaine Fonts^3,4, Louis Gaboury⁵, Yvan Boulanger^4,6, Gilles Soulez⁷, Vincent Poitout^3,4, An Tang⁸

¹Radiology, Hpital Saint-Luc, Montreal, France; ²Beaujon Hospital, Universit Paris VII, Canada; ³Montral Diabetes Research Center, Canada; ⁴CRCHUM, Canada; ⁵Department of Anatomo-Pathology, CHUM, Canada; ⁶Radiology, Hpital Saint-Luc, Canada; ⁷Radiology, CRCHUM, Canada; ⁸Radiology, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

The purpose of the study is to validate and optimize a routine 1.5T MRI method to detect and measure liver steatosis in an experimental glucolipotoxic rat model by using 1H-MR spectroscopy as the reference standard. Two 20 and 90 flip angle (FA) were applied on the dual echo in/out of phase sequence and T2* was calculated. MRI and 1H-MRS accurately distinguished steatotic from non steatotic liver. A significant correlation was found between dual-echo MRI and MRS. This correlation was higher with 90 (r = 0.749, P < 0.001) than with 20 FA (r = 0.651, P < 0.001). T2* correction did not improve the correlation with 1H-MRS.