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Comparative Study of Quantitative Diagnosis of Hepatic Fat Content by MRI and Patholgy

ObjectiveTo investigate the diagnostic value of spectral saturation inversion recovery, gradient-echo chemical shift MRI， and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy in quantifying hepatic fat content. MethodsConventional T1-weighted and T2-weighted scanning (without fat saturation and with fat saturation)， gradient-echo T1W in-phase （IP） and opposedphase （OP） images and 1H-MRS were performed in 31 healthy volunteers and 22 patients who were candidates for liver surgery. Signal intensities of T1WI amp; T1WIFS (SInonfat1, SIfat1), T2WI amp; T2WI-FS (SInonfat2, SIfat2), and IP amp; OP (SIin, SIout) were measured respectively, the relative signal intensity one (RSI1), relative signal intensity two (RSI2)， and fat index (FI) were calculated. Peak values and the area under peak of 1H-MRS were measured, and the relative lipid content of liver cells (RLC ) were calculated. Twenty-two patients accepted liver resection and histological examination after MRI scanning, the proportion of fatty degenerative cells were calculated by image analysis software. Results①Hepatic steatosis group showed higher average values of RSI1, FI， and RLC to non-hepatic steatosis group (Plt;0.05), while there was no significant difference in RSI2 between two groups (Pgt;0.05). ②There was a statistical significant difference in RLC among different histopathological grades of hepatic steatosis, and RLC increased in parallel with histopathological grade (Plt;0.05).There was no significant difference in RSI2, RSI1, and FI among different histopathological grades, although the latter two had a tendency of increasing concomitant with histopathological grade (Pgt;0.05). ③The values of FI and RLC were positively correlated with the PFDC （r=0468, P=0.027； r＝0771， Plt;0.000 1）, while they were not in RSI1 and RSI2 (r=0.411, P=0.057； r=0.191, P=0.392). ConclusionsSPIR, Gradient-echo chemical shift MRI and 1H-MRS can help to differentiate patients with hepatic steatosis from normal persons, the latter also can help to classify hepatic steatosis. In quantifying hepatic fat content, 1H-MRS is superior to gradient-echo chemical shift MRI, while SPIR’s role is limited.