Identification of brown adipose tissue in an adult human using parametric data reconstructed from a 2-point Dixon magnetic resonance imaging sequence acquired simultaneously with FDG PET

AbstractThe identification and quantification of brown adipose tissue (BAT) in adult humans are crucial in current research efforts targeting BAT in the fight against obesity. Recently, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has shown promise in differentiating BAT from white adipose tissue (WAT) through its ability to depict relative fat and water content within areas of macroscopic adipose tissue.We present a case of a 65 year old woman, one of the first ever patients scanned on a hybrid positron emission tomography (PET)/MRI scanner in Australia, in whom extensive physiological BAT uptake of F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) was observed in the supraclavicular fossae that correlated extremely well with areas of adipose tissue with low fat fraction on MRI.The ability to reliably and accurately detect and quantify BAT by MRI would eradicate the need for ionising radiation associated with PET − the current gold standard in imaging of BAT − and have a significant positive impact for all human subjects enrolled in BAT studies. More detailed investigation is required to determine the reproducibility and accuracy of the proposed MRI reconstruction methods for BAT identification in a larger number of subjects