Abstract #0597

Single-Voxel Diffusion-Weighted MR Spectroscopy for Fat-Corrected ADC Measurement

Valentina Taviani¹, Diego Hernando², Scott B. Reeder¹,³

¹Radiology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, United States; ²Radiology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States; ³Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, United States

Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measurements are confounded by the presence of fat. This has important clinical implications as many organs such as the breast, liver and bone marrow contain fat. We developed a single-voxel diffusion-weighted (DW) spectroscopic sequence that allows ADC measurements corrected for the confounding effect of fat. Phantom experiments and in vivo measurements in the spinal bone marrow, breast and liver were performed. ADCs were compared to corresponding values obtained from conventional DW echo-planar imaging (DW-EPI). The two techniques were in agreement when the fat content was low but DW-EPI substantially underestimated ADC for higher fat fractions.