System and method for assessing susceptibility of tissue using magnetic resonance imaging

1. A computer-implemented method for assessing magnetic susceptibility of tissue of a subject within a region of interest (ROI) using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, the method comprising the steps of:

a) acquiring, with the MRI system, chemical-shift-encoded, water-fat separated data from the ROI;

b) from the water-fat separated data, determining with a computer system, a magnetic field inhomogeneity map across the ROI;

c) using the magnetic field inhomogeneity map, estimating with the computer system, a magnetic susceptibility of the tissue within the ROI;

d) correcting, with the computer system, the estimated magnetic susceptibility of the tissue within the ROI for background effects and using a baseline susceptibility of known susceptibility to determine an offset that provides an absolute susceptibility; and

e) using the corrected susceptibility map providing absolute susceptibility within the ROI and at least one of assumptions about magnetic resonance invisible materials or a fat fraction of the ROI, generating an iron concentration map.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the tissue is a first tissue, the ROI is a first ROI positioned in the first tissue, and the method further includes:

a)i) acquiring, with the MRI system, chemical-shift-encoded, water-fat separated data from a second ROI positioned in a second tissue that is adjacent the first tissue;

b)i) from the water-fat separated data, determining with the computer system, another magnetic field inhomogeneity map across the second ROI;

c)i) using the another magnetic field inhomogeneity map, estimating with the computer system, a magnetic susceptibility of the second tissue within the second ROI; and

e) determining with the computer system, a susceptibility difference between the first ROI and the second ROI.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the first ROI is located proximate to the second ROI.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the first tissue includes liver tissue and the second tissue includes subcutaneous adipose tissue.

5. The method as recited in claim 2 , wherein step d) includes correcting the estimated magnetic susceptibility of the first tissue within the first ROI by selecting with the computer system a baseline susceptibility value that is based on known susceptibility values and subtracting the baseline susceptibility value from the estimated magnetic susceptibility of the first tissue within the first ROI.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein steps a) through d) are performed at a first time before being repeated at a second time and wherein the method further includes:

e) determining with the computer system, a susceptibility difference between the ROI at the first time and the ROI at the second time.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising injecting the subject with a contrast agent and wherein steps a) through d) are performed at the first time before injection of the contrast agent and steps a) through d) are performed at the second time after injection of the contrast agent.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein step e) includes determining with the computer system, a susceptibility difference between the ROI at the first time and the ROI at the second time caused by the injection of the contrast agent.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein step c) includes performing a dipole inversion with the computer system to estimate the susceptibility as a relative susceptibility between tissues.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein step c) includes performing a dipole inversion with the computer system to estimate the susceptibility as a relative susceptibility between tissues.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein step b) further includes generating with the computer system, an R 2 * map and step c) includes using the R 2 * map as a computational constraint in the dipole inversion.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein step b) further includes generating with the computer system, an R 2 * map and step d) includes correcting the estimate of the magnetic susceptibility of the tissue using the R 2 * map in an empirical estimate of iron overload in the tissue as part of the baseline susceptibility determination.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the baseline susceptibility of known susceptibility is derived from one of adipose tissue, fluid with the subject, or an external reference.

14. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system comprising:

a magnet system configured to generate a polarizing magnetic field about at least a portion of a subject arranged in the MRI system;

a plurality of gradient coils configured to apply a gradient field to the polarizing magnetic field;

a radio frequency (RF) system configured to apply an excitation field to the subject and acquire MR image data from a ROI;

a computer system programmed to:

control the plurality of gradient coils and RF system to acquire chemical-shift-encoded, water-fat separated data from the ROI;

determine, from the water-fat separated data, a magnetic field inhomogeneity map of the MRI system across the ROI;

estimate, using the magnetic field inhomogeneity map, a magnetic susceptibility of the tissue within the ROI;

correct the estimated magnetic susceptibility of the tissue within the ROI for background effects and relative measure of magnetic susceptibility using at least a baseline susceptibility; and

determine at least one of a concentration of iron and a change in concentration of iron within the ROI using the corrected estimate of the magnetic susceptibility of the tissue within the ROI and at least one of a fat fraction of the ROI or magnetic resonance invisible material assumptions.

15. The MRI system of claim 14 wherein the computer system is further programmed to perform a dipole inversion to estimate the magnetic susceptibility as a relative susceptibility between tissues.

16. The MRI system of claim 15 wherein the computer system is further programmed to generate an R 2 * map from the water-fat separated data and use the R 2 * map as a computational constraint in the dipole inversion.

17. The MRI system of claim 14 wherein the computer system is further programmed to:

control the gradient coils and RF system to acquire chemical-shift-encoded, water-fat separated data from another ROI separate from the ROI;

determine, from the water-fat separated data from the another ROI, another magnetic field inhomogeneity map of the MRI system across the another ROI;

estimate, using the another magnetic field inhomogeneity map, a magnetic susceptibility of the tissue within the another ROI; and

determine a susceptibility difference between the ROI and the another ROI.

18. The MRI system of claim 17 wherein the ROI is located proximate to the another ROI.

19. The MRI system of claim 14 wherein the computer system is further programmed to acquire data at a first time from the ROI before injection of a contrast agent and acquire data at a second time from the ROI after injection of the contrast agent.

20. The MRI system of claim 19 wherein the computer is further programmed to determine a susceptibility difference between the ROI at the first time and the ROI at the second time caused by the injection of the contrast agent.