Non-Invasive, Fast and Reliable Assessment of Age- And Gender-Related Pancreas and Liver Fat Content in Completely Healthy Individuals: Modified Dixon Method with 3 Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Abstract

Method: The study enrolled a total of 62 patients aged between 20-62 years including 35 male (56.5%) and 27 female (43.5) patients as healthy liver donors who had normal BMI (18.2 25.7 kg/m2) according to Modified Dixon quantification (mDixon quant) sequence in 3 Tesla MR device. Fat content (%) and signal time value for iron (millisecond) in the liver tissue and fat content (%) in pancreas and muscle tissue were automatically quantified in the relevant areas through images. For normalization, muscle tissue was measured for the value of iron signal time. Liver segment VI, head, body and tail parts of pancreas, and two paraspinal muscles (multifidus) in the same section were quantified. Multivariate generalized linear models were used to test significant differences in fat contents and iron signal time values between age subgroups.