Precise volumetry of human adipose tissue compartments by combining automatic post-processing algorithms and optimized MRI acquisition techniques

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During the last years multiple large-cohort studies proved a significant correlation between reduced insulin sensitivity and the volumes of some adipose tissue compartments of the human body. The reduced insulin sensitivity can lead to wide-spread diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus and the metabolic syndrome which can lead to concomitant diseases such as cardiac arrest, stroke, blindness or renal insufficiency. Therefore, a precise and accurate volumetric assessment of adipose tissue compartments of the body is desirable for risk estimation and for monitoring of lifestyle interventions. Based on our preliminary work on automatic volumetry of major adipose tissue compartments, new reliable procedures for assessment of fatty tissue in the presence of severe signal inhomogeneities (caused by phased-array coils or RF-interferences) are to be developed in the proposed project. In contrast to many other approaches we opt to achieve this by simultaneous optimizing of both, imaging and evaluation techniques. Furthermore, small-volume adipose tissue compartments in the vicinity of blood vessels or the moving epi-/pericardial compartments are to be quantified reliably, since their role in future studies of the metabolism is expected to be highly significant. New methods with high selectivity to fat using adapted phase unwrapping and acceleration of data acquisition by modern 'compressed sensing' techniques are to be developed.