Abstract #0233

Reproducible Intramuscular Fat Quantification using Vendor-Independent Processing in a Multi-Site, Multi-Vendor Setting

Brendan L. Eck¹, Richard Lartey¹, Sibaji Gaj¹, Mei Li¹, Jeehun Kim¹, William Zaylor¹, Dongxing Xie¹, Carl S. Winalski², Kevin D. Harkins³, Laura J. Huston⁴, Ryan K. Robison^3,5, Nancy A. Obuchowski⁶, Bruce M. Damon^3,7, Faysal Altahawi², Michael Knopp⁸, Morgan H. Jones⁹, Kurt P. Spindler⁹, and Xiaojuan Li¹

¹Biomedical Engineering, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, United States, ²Diagnostic Radiology, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, United States, ³Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States, ⁴Orthopaedic Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States, ⁵Philips, Nashville, TN, United States, ⁶Quantitative Health Sciences, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, United States, ⁷Carle, Urbana, IL, United States, ⁸Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States, ⁹Orthopaedic Surgery, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, United States

Synopsis

Keywords: Muscle, Muscle, Reproducibility, fat, Dixon, post-processing, image processing, multi-site, multi-vendor, osteoarthritis, orthopaedics, ACL reconstruction

Motivation: Intramuscular fat is associated with muscle degeneration. Chemical shift-encoded MRI quantifies proton density fat fraction (PDFF), but multi-site, multi-vendor reproducibility for intramuscular assessment is scarcely reported.

Goal(s): To evaluate the reproducibility of a vendor-independent thigh muscle PDFF quantification approach using multi-site, multi-vendor data and then assess PDFF in patients 10 years post-anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR).

Approach: Phantoms, traveling controls, and ACLR patients were scanned using five scanners (three sites, two vendors). A correction was developed to address image scaling variations.

Results: Average absolute PDFF standard deviation was below 1% after correction. The ACLR patient cohort had elevated PDFF in operated leg hamstrings.

Impact: Harmonized acquisition and vendor-independent processing with the proposed image scaling correction can provide reproducible thigh intramuscular proton density fat fraction across sites and vendors. This approach may characterize within-patient muscle changes, such as bilateral differences or potentially longitudinal assessment.

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