Quantification of intramyocellular lipids in obese subjects using spectroscopic imaging with high spatial resolution.

Quantification of intramyocellular lipids (IMCL) in obese subjects by single-voxel spectroscopy (SVS) or conventional spectroscopic imaging (SI) often fails due to overlap of IMCL spectral lines by extramyocellular lipids (EMCL), and signal contamination from subcutaneous fat and bone marrow. This study demonstrates that these problems can be solved by high-resolution SI with 128 phase-encoding steps and a read gradient during acquisition. The small voxels obtained in this way facilitated differentiation between EMCL and IMCL. This method offers the possibility of studying different muscle groups and the variation of lipids within one muscle.