Radiology, Vol 181, 41-47, Copyright © 1991 by Radiological Society of North America

ARTICLES

Combined chemical-shift and phase-selective imaging for fat suppression: theory and initial clinical experience

TW Chan, J Listerud and HY Kressel
Department of Radiology, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

Incomplete fat suppression with a chemical-shift-selective (CHESS) or phase-selective (Dixon) technique is partially due to the olefinic fat component, which precesses at the same frequency as water. The authors developed a new method of fat suppression--the opposed-fat saturation (OP-ES) sequence--that combines both techniques to obtain superior fat saturation. Fat suppression was verified in phantom studies, which showed that the CHESS portion can eliminate most of the aliphatic fat signal except for a small residual component because of steady state effects and magnetic field imperfections. This residual component is cancelled by the olefinic fat with the phase-selective opposed portion of the sequence. Furthermore, this sequence was superior to another hybrid technique, chopper Dixon in combination with CHESS. When used in 10 healthy volunteers, the OP-FS sequence showed consistently better suppression of the subcutaneous and retroperitoneal fat compared with CHESS alone. Additional advantages for clinical abdominal imaging include its compatibility with respiratory compensation, use of a single excitation, and ease of implementation with gradient-echo imaging. Preliminary application in 10 patients illustrated other potential advantages, including clarification of fat-containing diseases and increasing conspicuity of some lesions.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Maas, P. F. Dijkstra, and E. M. Akkerman Uniform Fat Suppression in Hands and Feet through the Use of Two-Point Dixon Chemical Shift MR Imaging Radiology, January 1, 1999; 210(1): 189 - 193. [Abstract] [Full Text]