Theodore F. Towse1, 2, Amanda KW Buck1, Jared A. Godar3, Bruce M. Damon1
1Radiology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States; 2Institute of Imaging Science, Nashville, TN, United States; 3Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States
Interest in quantifying myocelluar lipid content including extramyocellular lipids (EMCL) and and intramyocellular lipids (IMCL) as well as the rate of turnover of these lipids has increased recently due to the finding of increased IMCL in insulin resistant subjects, suggesting a possible role in the pathogenesis of diabetes. However quantification of these lipid moieties is not trivial due to the overlap between the IMCL and EMCL peaks in the 1H spectrum. We propose using the fiber orientation, as determined by diffusion-tensor (DT-) MRI, as prior knowledge in fitting the EMCL and IMCL peaks, thereby improving overall quantification.