Characterizing a short T2 * signal component in the liver using ultrashort TE chemical shift-encoded MRI at 1.5T and 3.0T.

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Recent studies have suggested the presence of short-T2 * signals in the liver, which may confound chemical shift-encoded (CSE) fat quantification when using short echo times (TEs). The purpose of this study was to characterize the liver signal at short echo times and to determine its impact on liver fat quantification. An ultrashort echo time (UTE) chemical shift-encoded MRI (CSE-MRI) technique and a multicomponent reconstruction were developed to characterize short-T2 * liver signals. Subsequently, liver fat fraction was quantified using a short-TE (first TE = 0.7 ms) and UTE CSE-MRI acquisitions and compared with a standard CSE-MRI (first TE = 1.2 ms). Short-T2 * signals were consistently observed in the liver of all healthy volunteers imaged at both 1.5T and 3.0T. At 3.0T, short-T2 * signal fractions of 9.6 ± 1.5%, 7.0 ± 1.7%, and 7.4 ± 1.7% with T2 * of 0.23 ± 0.05 ms, 0.20 ± 0.05 ms, and 0.10 ± 0.02 ms were measured in healthy volunteers, patients with liver cirrhotic disease, and patients with hepatic steatosis (but no cirrhosis), respectively. For proton density fat fraction (PDFF) estimation, 1.7% (P < .01) and 3.4% (P < .01) biases were observed in subjects imaged using short-TE CSE-MRI and using UTE CSE-MRI at 1.5T, respectively. The biases were reduced to 0.4% and -0.7%, respectively, by excluding short echoes less than 1 ms. A 3.2% bias (P < .01) was observed in subjects imaged using UTE CSE-MRI at 3.0T, which was reduced to 0.1% by excluding short echoes <1 ms. A liver short-T2 * signal component was consistently observed and was shown to confound liver fat quantification when short echo times were used with CSE-MRI.