High speed multiple echo acquisition (HISTO): A rapid and simultaneous assessment of fat and iron content in liver by 1HMRS, validation on phantoms and patients

Proton MR Spectroscopy (´H MRS) offers a means for noninvasively determining hepatic lipids (HL) and provides acceptable spectral resolution and high sensitivity even with low amounts of HL. ¹H-MRS is also used to accurately quantify the iron overload in the liver. In this work, we introduce a technique that allows the rapid, accurate and simultaneous assessment of fat and iron content which could be applied for single breath hold liver MRS. The feasibility and accuracy of this technique has been demonstrated experimentally in phantoms and applied to patients with fatty liver disease.