Effects of Fat Particle Size on R2* in Fat-Water-SPIO Emulsion Phantoms: Implications for Fat Quantification with Phantoms

Catherine D. G. Hines¹, Calista Roen¹, Diego Hernando¹, Scott B. Reeder^1,2

As iron differentially affects the T2* of water and fat, the purpose of this work is to investigate the impact of fat particle size on the behavior of R2* of water and fat for T2* correction for fat quantification. A homogeneous fat-water-SPIO phantom of constant fat-fraction was constructed with varying particle sizes of fat. Phantom results show that in the presence of iron, fat and water have different R2* values, which are highly dependent on fat particle size. Thus, fat particle size impacts the ability of a quantitative MRI method that uses T2* correction to quantify fat, depending on how T2* correction is performed.