Measurement of liquid content by phase contrast NMR imaging

Spectroscopic imaging uses the chemical shift of resonance frequencies between water protons and lipidic protons. Dephasing their magnetizations makes possible to measure in vivo the lipid content of tissues. This technique is easy to implement whatever the magnetic field value. As it uses a temporal shift in a spin echo sequence, it does not depend on radio frequency imperfections. We evaluated the sensitivity of this technique to systematic errors resulting from time intervals in the sequence, flip angle missetting and frequency offset. An optimum set of experimental parameters is determined for the clinical use of the technique