Fig. 2.

Three examples (a–c) of a liver ME-GRE sequence obtained at 1.5 T with 12 echoes showing for each patient a selection of TE = 4.8 and 14.8 ms images (first line) and also a MRQuantif graph (second line) plotting the signal intensity according to TEs (signal of liver is yellow, signal of muscle in light red). a Patient without iron overload (LIC 12 μmol/g). Visually, the liver signal is close to that of the paraspinous muscles on both echoes. On the graph, curve of the liver signal (yellow line) decreased progressively but stayed above that of the muscle (light red line). The slight sinusoidal ripple of the signal according to the phase corresponded to a mild degree of fatty infiltration. b Mild iron overload (LIC 93 μmol/g). Visually, the liver signal is below that of the paraspinous muscles, particularly on the long TE. On the graph, the liver signal decreased more rapidly than that of the muscle. c Major iron overload (LIC 355 μmol/g). Visually, the liver signal is collapsed on both echoes. On the graph, the liver signal decreased very rapidly and reached the level of the background noise at the fourth echo (4.8 ms)