Abdominal MRI at 3.0 T: LAVA-Flex compared with conventional fat suppression T1-weighted images.
OBJECTIVE
To study liver imaging with volume acceleration-flexible (LAVA-Flex) for abdominal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 3.0 T and compare the image quality of abdominal organs between LAVA-Flex and fast spoiled gradient-recalled (FSPGR) T1-weighted imaging.


METHODS
Our Institutional Review Board approval was obtained in this retrospective study. Sixty-nine subjects had both FSPGR and LAVA-Flex sequences. Two radiologists independently scored the acquisitions for image quality, fat suppression quality, and artifacts and the values obtained were compared with the Wilcoxon signed rank test. According to the signal intensity (SI) measurements, the uniformity of fat suppression, the contrast between muscle and fat and normal liver and liver lesions were compared by the paired t-test. The liver and spleen SI on the fat-only phase were analyzed in the fatty liver patients.


RESULTS
Compared with FSPGR imaging, LAVA-Flex images had better and more homogenous fat suppression and lower susceptibility artifact (qualitative scores: 4.70 vs. 4.00, 4.86% vs. 7.14%, 4.60 and 4.10, respectively). The contrast between muscle and fat and between the liver and pathologic lesions was significantly improved on the LAVA-Flex sequence. The contrast value of the fatty liver and spleen was higher than that of the liver and spleen.


CONCLUSIONS
The LAVA-Flex sequence offers superior and more homogenous fat suppression of the abdomen than does the FSPGR sequence. The fat-only phase can be a simple and effective method of assessing fatty liver.
Sichuan Key Laboratory of Medical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, China.
Xing Hui
XH
Li
Jiang
J
Zhu
Xiao Ming
XM
Zhang
Yi Fan
YF
Ji
Tian Wu
TW
Chen
Xiao Hua
XH
Huang
Lin
L
Yang
Nan Lin
NL
Zeng
D050153:Abdominal Fat / Q000473:pathology*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D050152:Intra-Abdominal Fat / Q000473:pathology*; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013382:Subtraction Technique
3.0 T MRI; Dixon technique; LAVA-Flex; abdominal imaging; fat suppression