Magnetic resonance imaging based determination of body compartments with the versatile, interactive sparse sampling (VISS) method

Purpose:

To investigate the inhomogeneity of radiofrequency fields at higher field strengths that can interfere with established volumetric methods, in particular for the determination of visceral (VAT) and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SCAT). A versatile, interactive sparse sampling (VISS) method is proposed to determine VAT, SCAT, and also total body volume (TBV).

Materials and Methods:

VISS is based on a separation of major components by contour lines, followed by a sparse sampling algorithm, and eventually a quick manual correction. T1‐weighted whole body scans of 24 subjects were evaluated (12 at 1.5T, 12 at 3.0T).

Results:

(a) Coefficients of variance (CV) and intra class correlation coefficients (ICC) determined within 3 raters (24 subjects) showed high consistency for SCAT (CV 2.2%, ICC 0.993) and VAT (CV 4.9%, ICC 0.987), (b) comparison with an established volumetric method revealed good agreement (Bland‐Altman, VAT ?0.68L to 1.07L, SCAT ?2.18L to 8.39L), and (c) comparison of weights calculated from TBV with values measured on a scale resulted in an even better accuracy for VISS (Bland‐Altman ?1.98 kg to 4.09 kg) than for the reference method (?5.60 kg to 1.60 kg).

Conclusion:

VISS is reproducible in particular within the same rater, accurate as compared with established methods, and robust against low contrast and inhomogeneity artifacts. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2012;36:951–960. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.