Short- and Long-Term Reproducibility of Intrahepatic Lipid Quantification by 1H-MR Spectroscopy and CT in Obesity

Objective This study aimed to assess short- and long-term reproducibility of intrahepatic lipid (IHL) quantification by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1 H-MRS) and computed tomography (CT). Methods Sixteen obese subjects underwent 1 H-MRS using a single-voxel point-resolved single-voxel spectroscopy sequence at 3 T and noncontrast single-slice CT of the liver. Measurements were repeated after 6 weeks and 6 months. Clinical parameters (weight, activity, serum lipids) were collected. Short-term (baseline to 6 weeks) and long-term (baseline to 6 months) reproducibility of IHL was assessed by coefficient of variance (CV), SD, and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Results Short-term reproducibility and long-term reproducibility of 1 H-MRS were as follows: CV, 5.9% to 18.8%; SD, 0.7 to 1.9; and ICC, 0.998 to 0.995 (95% confidence interval, 0.942-0.999). Short-term reproducibility and long-term reproducibility of CT were as follows: CV, 4.4% to 14.2%; SD, 2.4 to 8.7; and ICC, 0.766 to 0.982 (95% confidence interval, 0.271-0.994). There was no significant change in clinical parameters (P > 0.3). Conclusions Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy and CT are reproducible methods for short- and long-term quantification of IHL content. Our results can guide sample size calculations for interventional and longitudinal studies.