Fully Automated Segmentation and Quantification of Abdominal Adipose Tissue Compartments in Mouse MRI

.............................................................................................................................. ii Co-Authorship Statement................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. iv Table of Contents................................................................................................................ v List of Tables ................................................................................................................... viii List of Figures .................................................................................................................... ix List of Abbreviations ......................................................................................................... xi 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Fat Distribution and Disease................................................................................... 1 1.1.1 Obesity related disease................................................................................ 1 1.1.2 Current tests for fat distribution and disease............................................... 7 1.1.3 Rodent Research ....................................................................................... 10 1.2 MR Physics ........................................................................................................... 11 1.2.1 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and MRI Basics......................................... 11 1.2.2 Net Magnetization within a Magnetic Field ............................................. 13 1.2.3 Magnetization Relaxation ......................................................................... 15 1.2.4 Resolution and Gradients.......................................................................... 17 1.2.5 Water-Fat Imaging .................................................................................... 20 1.2.6 Water and Fat Imaging Techniques .......................................................... 21 1.3 Fat Segmentation .................................................................................................. 26 1.3.1 Mouse Anatomy........................................................................................ 27 1.3.2 Rodent segmentation techniques............................................................... 28 1.3.3 Limitations of current techniques ............................................................. 30