Ultrasonic Attenuation Coefficient Estimate of Placenta is correlated to MRI Proton-Density-Fat Fraction: A Preliminary Ex Vivo Study

This work explores a non-invasive imaging approach for quantifying placental fat. First, we show the efficacy of MRI proton-density-fat-fraction (PDFF) to accurately measure fat percentage in a phantom study. We found that ultrasonic attenuation coefficient estimate (ACE) is strongly correlated to the MRI PDFF in the phantoms. In the ex vivo placental study, we demonstrate that the spatial variation in MRI PDFF map and ultrasonic ACE map are correlated.