Estimation of Hepatic Iron Concentration (HIC) on Patients with High Iron Burden

Motivation: Patients with elevated hepatic iron concentration (HIC) require ongoing monitoring and treatment. Multi-echo GRE is used to generate R2*/T2* maps which allow quantification of HIC, but the maps are prone to failure in patients with high HIC. Goal(s): When multi-echo GRE R2*/T2* maps fail, manual calculation of hepatic T2* may be necessary to accurately quantify hepatic T2*. Approach: Pixel intensity measurements from short and long TE scans were manually recorded in hepatic regions of interest (ROI's). T2* was then calculated using the natural log (ln) equation T2* = -t / (Mxy/M0)ln. Results: HIC was accurately quantified by manually calculating T2*. Impact: R2*/T2* maps generated from multi-echo GRE scans are used to quantify hepatic iron concentration (HIC), but these maps are prone to failure in patients with high HIC. Manual calculation of hepatic T2* may be necessary for these patients.