Quantitative evaluation of the fatty fraction of lumbar vertebral bone marrow by the 3-point water-fat separation technology of IDEAL-IQ: A preliminary study on healthy adult volunteers

This present study aimed to explore the application value of the functional magnetic resonance imaging sequence of 3-point water-fat separation technology of iterative decomposition of water and fat with echo asymmetry and least-squares estimation (IDEAL-IQ) to quantitatively evaluate the fat content of lumbar vertebral bone marrow (LVBM) in healthy adult volunteers. Finally, a cohort of 74 volunteers was enrolled in this study and then divided into 3 age-grading groups: 20 to 40 years, 41 to 60 years, and >60 years, and each group was further subclassified into male and female subgroups. All enrolled volunteers underwent the 3-point water-fat separation technology of IDEAL-IQ scanning on the lumbar spine with a 3.0T MR system. The fat fraction (FF) values of LVBM were measured and analyzed statistically by using the software of SPSS 26.0. The FF values of LVBM between different age-grading groups were significantly different (all P < .05), and were highest in the subgroup of >60 years (male, 56.27 ± 7.64; female, 63.33 ± 5.52) and lowest in the 20 to 40 years group (male, 37.71 ± 6.61; female, 27.53 ± 6.12). The FF value of LVBM in females was lower than that in males for the 20 to 40 years subgroup (37.71 ± 6.61 vs 27.53 ± 6.12, P < .05). In contrast, the FF value of LVBM in females was larger than that in males for the subgroup aged >60 years (56.27 ± 7.64 vs 63.33 ± 5.52, P < .05), and there was no significant difference between them for the subset aged 41 to 60 years (47.80 ± 6.36 vs 48.48 ± 11.30, P > .05). In addition, the FF values of LVBM in male and female volunteers correlated positively with age grading (male: R = 0.725, P < .01; female: R = 0.837, P < .01; respectively). In conclusion, IDEAL-IQ is an effective MR technique for evaluating the fat content of LVBM in healthy adults of different ages and has significant implications in clinical practice for assessing the myelopoietic capacity of patients, thereby aiding in the diagnosis and treatment assessment of bone marrow diseases.