Feasibility of MR-Based Body Composition Analysis in Large Scale Population Studies

Abstract

IntroductionQuantitative and accurate measurements of fat and muscle in the body are important for prevention and diagnosis of diseases related to obesity and muscle degeneration. Manually segmenting muscle and fat compartments in MR body-images is laborious and time-consuming, hindering implementation in large cohorts. In the present study, the feasibility and success-rate of a Dixon-based MR scan followed by an intensity-normalised, non-rigid, multi-atlas based segmentation was investigated in a cohort of 3,000 subjects.Materials and Methods3,000 participants in the in-depth phenotyping arm of the UK Biobank imaging study underwent a comprehensive MR examination. All subjects were scanned using a 1.5 T MR-scanner with the dual-echo Dixon Vibe protocol, covering neck to knees. Subjects were scanned with six slabs in supine position, without localizer. Automated body composition analysis was performed using the AMRA Profiler™ system, to segment and quantify visceral adipose tissue (VAT), abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue (ASAT) and thigh muscles. Technical quality assurance was performed and a standard set of acceptance/rejection criteria was established. Descriptive statistics were calculated for all volume measurements and quality assurance metrics.ResultsOf the 3,000 subjects, 2,995 (99.83%) were analysable for body fat, 2,828 (94.27%) were analysable when body fat and one thigh was included, and 2,775 (92.50%) were fully analysable for body fat and both thigh muscles. Reasons for not being able to analyse datasets were mainly due to missing slabs in the acquisition, or patient positioned so that large parts of the volume was outside of the field-of-view.Discussion and ConclusionsIn conclusion, this study showed that the rapid UK Biobank MR-protocol was well tolerated by most subjects and sufficiently robust to achieve very high success-rate for body composition analysis. This research has been conducted using the UK Biobank Resource.

Whole‐body adipose tissue and lean muscle volumes and their distribution across gender and age: MR‐derived normative values in a normal‐weight Swiss population

“…This relates to fat-water swaps introduced by the mDixon phasesensitive reconstruction algorithm. Further details about the quality control procedure regarding quality and adjustments of automated segmentation results can be found in the recently published work by West et al (35) and Borga et al (24) (the typical time spent to review the segmentation results (to ensure that the data sets were truly well segmented in each compartment throughout the body) in this particular study was approximately 30 min per data set and provided by experienced operators of AMRA). Each image stack was intensity inhomogeneity-corrected using fat-referenced bias field correction (34).…”

Fat Quantification in the Abdomen

“…This has limited their use to a small number of image slices in the research setting, but numerous automated and semi-automated methods have been developed for adipose and muscle tissue segmentation recently 23 . One of these techniques has recently been implemented in the United Kingdom BioBank study of over three thousand adults, which demonstrates its large-scale feasibility 27 . These methods face two main challenges in binary tissue classification and 2D segmentation.…”

“…Recently, a technique based on 3D Dixon imaging has been proposed to quantify intra-abdominal adipose tissue as well as subcutaneous adipose tissue. The new method enables faster fat quantification and its large-scale feasibility has been demonstrated in the United Kingdom BioBank study 23,27 .…”

Body Composition Profiling in the UK Biobank Imaging Study

“…Moving toward individualized medicine, specific measures of body composition could greatly advance our understanding of obesity, metabolic health, aging, and chronic diseases. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is extensively used for body composition analysis and is accepted as the gold standard in body composition research . Recently developed MRI techniques allow for advanced body composition profiling and phenotyping using standardized acquisition protocols, enabling a comparison of measurements across large‐scale cohorts and between different studies .…”