Efficient and Complete Fat Suppression in 2-point Dixon MRI for Improved Qualitative and Quantitative Assessment of Lumbar Plexus

Motivation: The use of 2-point Dixon is prevalent for fat/water separation in MRI, but suffers from incomplete fat suppression, leading to residual fat signal in the water image. We have previously developed a “Darkfat” post-processing technique that can reduce this residual signal. Goal(s): This retrospective study aims to evaluate Darkfat processing in clinical lumbar plexus images. Approach: Retrospective 2-point T2-weighted lumbar images from 30 patients were processed using Darkfat and evaluated through qualitative and quantitative assessment. Results: Water-only images from Darkfat processing had significantly better fat suppression (P<0.0001), and subjectively better image quality (P<0.005) compared to original water images from 2-point T2-weighted Dixon acquisition. Impact: Darkfat image processing significantly improves fat suppression in clinical 2-point T2-weighted lumbar images enabling enhanced anatomical visualization. This could potentially improve pathological visualization.