In order to discriminate between diseases of the non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) spectrum, additionally to the total amount of deposited liver fat, knowledge about the relative fractions of different fatty acids might be valuable. The fatty acids determine the relative areas under peaks of the multi-peak fat spectrum, which can be used to measure their degree of saturation using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).

The aim of this project is to develop a method yielding accurate information about the fatty acid composition in the liver using MRI. The technique ought to measure the fraction of unsaturated, mono-unsaturated, poly-unsaturated as well as saturated fat in percent with high enough spatial resolution, such that local changes in the composition can be captured. This not only includes proper post-processing of reconstructed MR contrast images, but also the optimization of the selected acquisition and reconstruction techniques.

This PhD project is in cooperation with Siemens AG, Healthcare, Erlangen.