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Short- and long-term reproducibility of marrow adipose tissue quantification by 1H-MR spectroscopy

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Abstract

Objective

To assess short- and long-term reproducibility of marrow adipose tissue (MAT) quantification by 1H-MR spectroscopy.

Materials and methods

Our study was IRB-approved and HIPAA compliant. Written informed consent was obtained. We studied 20 overweight/obese but otherwise healthy subjects (12 female, 8 male) with a mean age of 37 ± 6 years. All subjects underwent proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) of the fourth lumbar vertebral body using a single-voxel point-resolved spatially localized spectroscopy sequence without water suppression at 3 T. Measurements were repeated after 6 weeks and 6 months using identical scanning protocols. The following clinical parameters were collected, weight, BMI, exercise status, and trabecular bone mineral density (BMD), by quantitative computed tomography. Short- (baseline, 6 weeks) and long-term (baseline, 6 months) reproducibility of MAT was assessed by the coefficient of variance (CV), standard deviation (SD), and interclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). Short- and long-term changes in clinical parameters were assessed by paired t-test.

Results

For short-term reproducibility between baseline and 6-week scans, the CV was 9.9 %, SD was 0.08, and ICC was 0.97 (95 % CI 0.94–099). For long-term reproducibility between baseline and 6-month scans, the CV was 12.0 %, SD was 0.10, and ICC was 0.95 (95 % CI 0.88 to 0.98). There was no significant short- or long-term change in clinical parameters (weight, BMI, exercise status, BMD) (p > 0.2).

Conclusion

1H-MRS is a reproducible method for short- and long-term quantification of MAT. Our results can guide sample size calculations for interventional and longitudinal studies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pediatric Endocrine Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital for Children and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Vibha Singhal

  2. Neuroendocrine Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Vibha Singhal & Karen K. Miller

  3. Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Martin Torriani & Miriam A. Bredella

Authors
  1. Vibha Singhal
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  2. Karen K. Miller
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  3. Martin Torriani
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  4. Miriam A. Bredella
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Miriam A. Bredella.

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Funding

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health grants R01 HL-077674, UL1 RR 025758, and K23 RR-23090.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Singhal, V., Miller, K.K., Torriani, M. et al. Short- and long-term reproducibility of marrow adipose tissue quantification by 1H-MR spectroscopy. Skeletal Radiol 45, 221–225 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00256-015-2292-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00256-015-2292-4

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