Fat content quantification errors using multiple gradient echo imaging: A phantom and simulation study

In the past decade, the incidence increase of obesity, diabetes and lipid metabolism disorders involved an epidemic increase of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Diseases (NAFLD) which may affect from 10 to 30% of adults and 13% of children in the occidental population. NAFLD can evolve to Non-Alcoholic Steato-Hepatitis (NASH) and may lead to liver fibrosis up to cirrhosis from which complications involve 15,000 deaths per year in France [1-2]. A clinical follow-up of NAFLD evolution would be very valuable. While the histology after liver biopsy is the gold standard for liver steatosis assessment, inherent risk, interobserver variability and sampling errors of this method are inappropriate. Several MR quantification methods have been proposed for liver fat content quantification including