Rapid Chemical Shift Imaging Method and Processing for Quantification of Bone Marrow Fat Fraction in the Vertebrae

Maite Aznarez-Sanado¹, Cheng Li¹, Jeremy F. Magland¹, Chamith S. Rajapakse¹, Felix W. Wehrli¹

Proton MR spectroscopy is a valuable technique for the assessment of bone marrow. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of a fast, multi-echo chemical-shift imaging method for in vivo quantification of vertebral marrow fat fraction. Five healthy subjects underwent the imaging paradigm twice with complete repositioning of the subject each time. in vivo marrow fat fraction measurements obtained at each vertebral level (L1-L5) were highly reproducible. The results suggest that this technique may reliably detect variations in the marrow fat fraction on the order of 4% in 95% of the cases.