Effects of different fat-suppression methods on T1 values in dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging: a phantom study

Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI may yield variable longitudinal-relaxation time (T1) values depending on the precision of the fat-suppression (FS) technique. This study aimed to investigate the influences of FS methods on T1 value measurements on phantoms containing test tubes filled with mixtures of five volumes of fat, six amounts of contrast agent, and water. Volumetric interpolated images were obtained using several FS methods and flip angles. T1 maps were created based on the variable flip angle approach. The T1 values of water obtained by point-resolved single-voxel spectroscopy (SVS) were used as reference values. Notably, FS methods were shown to have substantial effects on the measurement of T1 values. Among the tested FS methods, the Dixon (water) method produced T1 values most similar to SVS, which can be considered as a reference value for clinical practice.