Despite its strong relevance in metabolic dysfunction, non-invasive measurement of fat microstructure remains an unmet need. In white adipose tissue, enlarged adipocyte size is linked to the obese phenotype. DW-MRS has been previously applied to probe diffusion restriction effects of intramyocellular lipids or brown adipocytes using preclinical systems. However, probing diffusion restriction in large lipid droplets remains a major challenge and DW-MRS can only measure spatially averaged effects. This work proposes a method that probes lipid droplet sizes with high b-value stimulated-echo prepared DW 2D single shot TSE, validates the methods in water-fat phantoms and applies it in the gluteal fat depot in vivo.
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