Reliability of Quantitative Assessment of Hepatic Steatosis on Breath-hold Dual Echo In-phase and Opposed-phase Gradient-echo MRI

SF Lee, YL Chan, B Tomlinson, S Ho, NWY Leung, BSP Fok

Hong Kong J Radiol 2005;8:214-7

Objective: To assess the reliability of quantitative measurement of signal intensity change in the liver on breath-hold gradient echo in-phase and opposed-phase imaging in hepatic steatosis.

Patients and Methods: The study population comprised 19 subjects with previous sonographic diagnosis of hepatic steatosis, who had repeat magnetic resonance imaging examinations for the quantification of the degree of liver fat content by signal intensity change in liver on breath-hold gradient echo in-phase and opposed-phase imaging.

Results: In the first examination, the range of percentage signal loss was from -3.6% (signal gain) to 84.8%, with a mean of 27% and a standard deviation of 25.6%. In the repeat examination, the range of percentage signal loss was from -8.9% to 85.9%, with a mean of 25.7% and a standard deviation of 26.1%. The standard error of measurement was 2.9%. Correlation of measurements in signal change between the two examinations was high (r = 0.99).

Conclusions: The quantitative assessment of hepatic steatosis on gradient echo in-phase and opposed-phase magnetic resonance imaging showed high reliability on repeat examinations.