Assessing correction factors for calculation of hepatic fatty acid composition with 1H-MRS – A multicenter setup

Motivation: Earlier reports established a robust way to determine hepatic FAC, but scanner-specific factors may hamper implementation at other research sites. Goal(s): Developing reliable and reproducible post-processing corrections for consistent calculation of hepatic FAC on different clinical MR-systems. Approach: 1H-MRS was performed in oil-water emulsions with varying concentrations on MRI systems from two different vendors, to determine post-processing correction factors for PUFA and MUFA calculations, accounting for TE induced signal loss. Results: Similar correction factors with 0.754 ± 0.005 and 0.682 ± 0.003 for PUFA calculation and 0.999 ± 0.002 and 0.907 ± 0.001 for MUFA calculation were achieved for both sites, respectively. Impact: Noninvasive determination of hepatic fatty acid composition supports research of metabolic disease pathology and progression. Providing consistent, site-specific processing for this 1H-MRS data is essential for comparing results in large multicenter studies with different MR-scanner setups.