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Clin Radiol. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2017 April 01. Published in final edited form as: Clin Radiol. 2016 April ; 71(4): 402.e1–402.e7. doi:10.1016/j.crad.2015.12.004.

Making the most of the imaging we have: using head MRI to estimate body composition C.M. Lack*, G.J. Lesser, U.N. Umesi, J. Bowns, M.Y. Chen, D. Case, R.C. Hightower, and A.J. Johnson Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical Center Blvd, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA

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Abstract Aim—To investigate the use of clinical head magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in determining body composition and to evaluate how well it correlates with established measures based on abdominal computed tomography (CT). Materials and Methods—Ninety-nine consecutive patients were identified who had undergone both brain MRI and abdominal CT within a 2-week span. Volumes of fat and muscle in the extracranial head were measured utilising several techniques by both abdominal CT and head MRI.

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Results—MRI-based total fat volumes in the head correlated with CT-based measurements of fat in the abdomen using both single-section (r=0.64, p