Liver fat accumulation measured by high-speed T2-corrected multi-echo magnetic resonance spectroscopy can predict risk of cholelithiasis

Abstract

BACKGROUND Liver fat accumulation is associated with increased cholesterol synthesis and hypersecretion of biliary cholesterol, which may be related to the development of cholelithiasis. AIM To investigate whether liver fat accumulation measured by high-speed T2-corrected multi-echo magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is a risk factor for cholelithiasis. METHODS Forty patients with cholelithiasis and thirty-one healthy controls were retrospectively enrolled. The participants underwent high-speed T2-corrected multi-echo single-voxel MRS of the liver at a 3T MR scanner. The proton density fat fraction (PDFF) and R2 value were calculated. Serum parameters and waist circumference (WC) were recorded. Spearman’s correlation analysis was used to analyze the relationship between PDFF, R2, and WC values. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was carried out to determine the significant predictors of the risk of cholelithiasis. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis was used to evaluate the discriminative performance of significant predictors. RESULTS Patients with cholelithiasis had higher PDFF, R2, and WC values compared with healthy controls (5.8% ± 4.2% vs 3.3% ± 2.4%, P = 0.001; 50.4 ± 24.8/s vs 38.3 ± 8.8/s, P = 0.034; 85.3 ± 9.0 cm vs 81.0 ± 6.9 cm, P = 0.030; respectively). Liver iron concentration extrapolated from R2 values was significantly higher in the cholelithiasis group (2.21 ± 2.17 mg/g dry tissue vs 1.22 ± 0.49 mg/g dry tissue, P = 0.034) than in the healthy group. PDFF was positively correlated with WC ( r = 0.502, P < 0.001) and R2 ( r = 0.425, P < 0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that only PDFF was an independent risk factor for cholelithiasis (odds ratio = 1.79, 95%CI: 1.22-2.62, P = 0.003). ROC analysis showed that the area under the curve of PDFF was 0.723 for discriminating cholelithiasis from healthy controls, with a sensitivity of 55.0% and specificity of 83.9% when the cut-off value of PDFF was 4.4%. CONCLUSION PDFF derived from high speed T2-corrected multi-echo MRS can predict the risk of cholelithiasis.

Relationship of Iron Intake, Ferritin, and Hepcidin with the Transverse Relaxation Rate of Water Protons in the Pancreas

“…Further, the ability of MR to separate the water resonance from other confounding proton resonance sources (e.g., lipids) enables the direct analyses of the transverse relaxation rate of tissue water (R2 water ) [16,17]. The high-speed T2-corrected multi-echo (HISTO) H 1 MR spectroscopy technique, where a single voxel sequence allows for quantification of tissue R2 water , has been developed [18,19]. Relaxometry has been widely employed in measuring myocardial and hepatic siderosis [20,21], and liver R2 water has been studied in relation to hepatic iron content [18,22].…”

Non-Invasive Evaluation of MAFLD and the Contribution of Genes: An MRI-PDFF-Based Cross-Sectional Study

“…Compared with other imaging modalities, MRI-PDFF has the highest diagnostic accuracy for the quanti cation of LFC and is commonly used in NASH trials. [10] Few studies have discussed the clinical characteristics of adult MAFLD based on MRI-PDFF, [11][12][13] and limited biomarkers have been investigated. [14][15][16][17] Serum biomarkers such as cytokeratin 18 (CK18), broblast growth factor 19 (FGF19), and tissue inhibitor matrix metalloproteinase 1 (TIMP1) showed a strong correlation with disease severity.…”

High‐Speed T2‐Corrected Multiecho Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy for Quantitatively Detecting Skeletal Muscle Fatty Infiltration and Predicting the Loss of Ambulation in Patients With Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

“…13,14 Traditionally, MRS has been performed with multiple acquisitions under free-breathing conditions to achieve a high signal-to-noise ratio, 15 which commonly leads to line broadening and erroneous data acquisition due to motion and long acquisition times. [16][17][18] Recently, high-speed T 2 -corrected multiecho (HISTO) MRS was developed to assess lipids by using multiple short-echo times to correct T 2 bias and using long repetition times to correct T 1 bias by enabling the simultaneous acquisition of multiple echoes, 19,20 which is faster and more accurate in acquiring and measuring lipid components than traditional MRS. [21][22][23] Previous studies have shown the benefit of HISTO-MRS for the precise quantitative assessment of fatty deposition in the liver. 23,24 However, only one study has examined the utilization and feasibility of HISTO-MRS as a rapid and noninvasive MRS technique for quantifying the fat infiltration of skeleton muscles in children with confirmed DMD, 25 Meanwhile, the relationship between muscle fat infiltration measured by HISTO-MRS and clinical motor functional ability remains unknown.…”

“…Traditionally, MRS has been performed with multiple acquisitions under free‐breathing conditions to achieve a high signal‐to‐noise ratio, 15 which commonly leads to line broadening and erroneous data acquisition due to motion and long acquisition times 16–18 . Recently, high‐speed T 2 ‐corrected multiecho (HISTO) MRS was developed to assess lipids by using multiple short‐echo times to correct T 2 bias and using long repetition times to correct T 1 bias by enabling the simultaneous acquisition of multiple echoes, 19,20 which is faster and more accurate in acquiring and measuring lipid components than traditional MRS 21–23 . Previous studies have shown the benefit of HISTO‐MRS for the precise quantitative assessment of fatty deposition in the liver 23,24 .…”