Comparison of Water and Lipid Content Measurements Using Diffuse Optical Spectroscopy and MRI in Emulsion Phantoms

We present a quantitative comparison of lipid and water signals obtained from broadband Diffuse Optical Spectroscopy (DOS) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). DOS and MRI measurements were performed on an identical set of emulsion phantoms that were composed of different water/soybean oil fractions. Absolute concentrations of water and lipid ranging from 35–94% and 63–6%, respectively were calculated from quantitative broadband near-infrared (NIR) absorption spectra (650–1000 nm). MR images of fat and water were separated using the three-point Dixon technique. DOS and MRI measured water and lipid were highly correlated (R2 = 0.98 and R2 = 0.99, respectively) suggesting that these techniques are complementary over a broad range of physiologically relevant water and lipid values. In addition, comparison of DOS derived concentrations to the MRI “gold standard” technique validates our quantitation approach and permits estimation of DOS accuracy and sensitivity in vivo.