Effect of Gd-EOB-DTPA on hepatic fat quantification using high-speed T2-corrected multi-echo acquisition in ¹H MR spectroscopy

Purpose: To determine whether gadolinium ethoxybenzyldiethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (Gd-EOB-DTPA) administration affects hepatic fat quantification by magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) using the fast breath-hold high-speed T2-corrected multiecho (HISTO) technique. Materials and Methods: Seventy-six patients underwent Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced liver MR and 15. sec breath-hold HISTO MRS (4 times), twice before and twice after Gd-EOB-DTPA administration. Two consecutive MRSs were performed immediately before the dynamic study. Post-contrast MRS was performed twice continuously, approximately 15. min after contrast injection, prior to obtaining 20-min hepatobiliary phase images. We used paired t-test and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) to evaluate the variability of the mean fat fraction (FF) on pre-contrast MRS and post-contrast MRS and the effect of the contrast agent on the mean FF. Results: The mean FFs were not significantly different between pre-contrast MRS and post-contrast MRS (6.50%. ±. 6.54 versus 6.70%. ±. 6.61, P=0.15). The ICC of FF calculation between pre- and post-contrast MRS was 0.984. The ICCs for the FF magnitude between pre- and post-contrast MRS were 0.452, 0.771, and 0.995 for FF <. 5%, FF 5-10%, and FF ≥. 10%, respectively. Conclusion: Gd-EOB-DTPA does not appear to influence hepatic fat quantification, especially for patients with hepatic steatosis.