%0 Journal Article
%T Hepatic Iron Quantification on 3 Tesla (3£¿T) Magnetic Resonance (MR): Technical Challenges and Solutions
%A Muhammad Anwar
%A John Wood
%A Deepa Manwani
%A Benjamin Taragin
%A Suzette O. Oyeku
%A Qi Peng
%J Radiology Research and Practice
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/628150
%X MR has become a reliable and noninvasive method of hepatic iron quantification. Currently, most of the hepatic iron quantification is performed on 1.5£¿T MR, and the biopsy measurements have been paired with and values for 1.5£¿T MR. As the use of 3£¿T MR scanners is steadily increasing in clinical practice, it has become important to evaluate the practicality of calculating iron burden at 3£¿T MR. Hepatic iron quantification on 3£¿T MR requires a better understanding of the process and more stringent technical considerations. The purpose of this work is to focus on the technical challenges in establishing a relationship between values at 1.5£¿T MR and 3£¿T MR for hepatic iron concentration (HIC) and to develop an appropriately optimized MR protocol for the evaluation of values in the liver at 3£¿T magnetic field strength. We studied 22 sickle cell patients using multiecho fast gradient-echo sequence (MFGRE) 3£¿T MR and compared the results with serum ferritin and liver biopsy results. Our study showed that the quantification of hepatic iron on 3£¿T MRI in sickle cell disease patients correlates well with clinical blood test results and biopsy results. 3£¿T MR liver iron quantification based on MFGRE can be used for hepatic iron quantification in transfused patients. 1. Introduction Presence of iron in the body is essential as it forms an important component of metabolic and biological processes. On the contrary, its excess can be a serious health risk for chronically transfused patients, for example, thalassemia and sickle cell disease patients [1, 2]. End organ damage can result from deposition of excessive iron in organs such as hepatic parenchyma, endocrine organs, and cardiac cells [3¨C5]. Total body iron load is the major determining factor of clinical outcome in all forms of systemic iron overload. Accurate assessment of total body iron load is crucial for managing iron chelation therapy to avoid iron toxicity while preventing the toxicity of excess chelator administration. Serum ferritin concentration, transferrin saturation, and serum iron concentration are serum makers for biochemical measurement of total body iron load. In most cases, these correlate well with the total iron burden; however, certain factors like infection, inflammation, and malignancy could modify these, and therefore these may not always correctly reflect tissue iron levels [6, 7]. Hepatic iron concentration has been shown to be a reliable pointer of total body iron stores in patients with transfusion-related iron overload. Repeated assessments of the hepatic iron concentration can
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/rrp/2013/628150/