Fast adipose tissue (FAT) assessment by MRI.
We report a method of fast adipose tissue (FAT) assessment to characterize the quantity, and distribution of abdominal adipose tissue. Whole-volume coverage of the abdomen was obtained using 31 contiguous transverse T(1)-weighted images from 16 obese females. A radiologist manually traced all adipose tissue volumes in the images, while a physiologist used an automated method to measure adipose tissue in a single image at the level of the umbilicus. Automated analysis of the umbilicus-level image was significantly correlated with values obtained by manual analysis of the entire abdomen (p < 0. 001). There was good agreement between the automated umbilicus-level image method and the manual whole abdomen method for subcutaneous adipose tissue (r(2) = 0.958), visceral adipose tissue (r(2) = 0. 753), and total adipose tissue (r(2) = 0.941). The automated method required 6 min vs 2 h for the manual method.
Gronemeyer
S A
SA
Department of Diagnostic Imaging, St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA. suzanne.gronemeyer@stjude.org
Steen
R G
RG
Kauffman
W M
WM
Reddick
W E
WE
Glass
J O
JO
D000005:Abdomen; D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000473:pathology*; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000886:Anthropometry; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D009765:Obesity / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity