Validation of volumetric and single‐slice MRI adipose analysis using a novel fully automated segmentation method

Abstract

Purpose To validate a fully automated adipose segmentation method with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) fat fraction abdominal imaging. We hypothesized that this method is suitable for segmentation of subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) and intra‐abdominal adipose tissue (IAAT) in a wide population range, easy to use, works with a variety of hardware setups, and is highly repeatable. Materials and Methods Analysis was performed comparing precision and analysis time of manual and automated segmentation of single‐slice imaging, and volumetric imaging (78–88 slices). Volumetric and single‐slice data were acquired in a variety of cohorts (body mass index [BMI] 15.6–41.76) including healthy adult volunteers, adolescent volunteers, and subjects with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and lipodystrophies. A subset of healthy volunteers was analyzed for repeatability in the measurements. Results The fully automated segmentation was found to have excellent agreement with manual segmentation with no substantial bias across all study cohorts. Repeatability tests showed a mean coefficient of variation of 1.2 ± 0.6% for SAT, and 2.7 ± 2.2% for IAAT. Analysis with automated segmentation was rapid, requiring 2 seconds per slice compared with 8 minutes per slice with manual segmentation. Conclusion We demonstrate the ability to accurately and rapidly segment regional adipose tissue using fat fraction maps across a wide population range, with varying hardware setups and acquisition methods. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2015;41:233–241. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Serum Leptin Is a Biomarker of Malnutrition in Decompensated Cirrhosis

“…Liver protocol MRI does not routinely extend below the L2/L3 level. Therefore, the single most caudal image from non-fat-saturated spoiled echo T1-weighted sequences was chosen for analysis [24]. The most cranial level included as at the level of the L1/L2 intravertebal disk.…”

Evaluation of epicardial adipose tissue in familial partial lipodystrophy

“…This later appears to be a reliable method and have also been validated in FPLD, using both qualitative and quantitative analysis [4-6]. A volumetric and single-slice MRI adipose analysis using a novel fully automated segmentation method has been also recently validated [7]. However, the high-cost limits its use.…”

Segmentation and quantification of adipose tissue by magnetic resonance imaging

“…As the name implies, the fat fraction map is consistently normalized to a scale of 0–100 %, and fat-dominant WAT typically occupies a high fat fraction range from 70 to 90 % [92]. By taking the ratio of two separated image data sets—water and fat—the proton-density fat fraction map effectively cancels the aforementioned bias field effect.…”

“…Table 4 (see Refs. [92, 142–161]) provides representative citations from recent literature on the automated segmentation of SAT, VAT, and muscle AT depots, using a combination of these post-processing steps. As with manual and supervised segmentation approaches, rigorous training of the analysts on anatomy and proper usage of these post-processing tools remain paramount to ensure consistent and reliable results.…”

“…Portions of the illustration courtesy of Bryan Addeman, University of Western Ontario, (see Ref. [92] for details) and Sendhil Velan, Singapore Bioimaging Consortium (see Ref. [156] for details)…”