Reproducibility and repeatability of MRI‐based body composition analysis
Open accessAbstract
PURPOSE: There is an absence of reproducibility studies on MRI-based body composition analysis in current literature. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the between-scanner reproducibility and the repeatability of a method for MRI-based body composition analysis. METHODS: Eighteen healthy volunteers of varying body mass index and adiposity were each scanned twice on five different 1.5T and 3T scanners from three different vendors. Two-point Dixon neck-to knee images and two additional liver scans were acquired with similar protocols. Visceral adipose tissue (VAT) volume, abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue (ASAT) volume, thigh muscle volume, and muscle fat infiltration (MFI) in the thigh muscle were measured. Liver proton density fat fraction (PDFF) was assessed using two different methods, the scanner vendor's 6-point method and an in-house 2-point method. Within-scanner test-retest repeatability and between-scanner reproducibility were calculated using analysis of variance. RESULTS: Repeatability coefficients were 13 centiliters (cl) (VAT), 24 cl (ASAT), 17 cl (total thigh muscle volume), 0.53% (MFI), and 1.27-1.37% for liver PDFF. Reproducibility coefficients were 24 cl (VAT), 42 cl (ASAT), 31 cl (total thigh muscle volume), 1.44% (MFI), and 2.37-2.40% for liver PDFF. CONCLUSION: For all measures except MFI, the within-scanner repeatability explained much of the overall reproducibility. The two methods for measuring liver fat had similar reproducibility. This study showed that the investigated method eliminates effects due to scanner differences. The results can be used for power calculations in clinical studies or to better understand the scanner-induced variability in clinical applications.
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Previous validation has shown high reproducibility and repeatability across manufacturers and field strengths, allowing for cross-study comparisons.
“Previous validation has shown high reproducibility and repeatability across manufacturers and field strengths, allowing for cross-study comparisons.16”
From Tirzepatide and muscle composition changes in people with type 2 diabetes (SURPASS-3 MRI): a post-hoc analysis of a randomised, open-label, parallel-group, phase 3 trial (2025) · cites this paper as [16]
The MRI acquisitions section describes testing five scanners from three manufacturers at 1.5T and 3T, and the Results report within-scanner repeatability and between-scanner reproducibility. The Discussion says reproducibility enables comparison with reference values from other sources, but specifies values obtained by the same method. The claim is too broad as written: the paper reports substantially greater between-scanner variability for muscle fat infiltration (MFI), so it does not establish uniformly high reproducibility or unrestricted cross-study comparability. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe same scanning procedure, image analyses, and methods of quantification for muscle volume and muscle fat infiltration were used in the SURPASS-3 MRI substudy as in the UK Biobank.
“The same scanning procedure, image analyses, and methods of quantification for muscle volume and muscle fat infiltration were used in the SURPASS-3 MRI substudy as in the UK Biobank.15,16”
From Tirzepatide and muscle composition changes in people with type 2 diabetes (SURPASS-3 MRI): a post-hoc analysis of a randomised, open-label, parallel-group, phase 3 trial (2025) · cites this paper as [16]
Sections 2.3 (MRI acquisitions) and 2.4 (Body composition analysis; pages unavailable) describe the scanning and analysis methods used to quantify thigh muscle volume and muscle fat infiltration. The paper cites a UK Biobank imaging study, but our copy does not establish that the SURPASS-3 MRI substudy used the same procedures as the UK Biobank. (LLM, conf=0.83)
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Borga, M., Ahlgren, A., Romu, T., Widholm, P., Dahlqvist Leinhard, O., & West, J.
- Affiliations
- Linköping University (SE)
- AMRA Medical AB Linköping Sweden
- Center for Medical Image science and Visualization Linköping University Linköping Sweden
- Corresponding author
- Borga, Magnus
- Venue
- Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2020-06-10
- Volume
- 84
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 3146-3156
- ISSN
- 0740-3194 (ISSN-L)
- 1522-2594
- OpenAlex
- W3032937495
- Cited by
- 94
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 2
- FWCI
- 5.41
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DiVA (Linkoping University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Vetenskapsrådet (2019‐04751)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Body Composition Measurement Techniques
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advanced MRI Techniques and Applications
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Liver Disease Diagnosis and Treatment
- Keywords
- reproducibility, repeatability, visceral adipose tissue, subcutaneous abdominal fat, thigh muscle volume, muscle fat infiltration, liver fat fraction, proton density fat fraction, Dixon MRI
- MeSH terms
- Adipose Tissue, Body Composition, Humans, Liver, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Reproducibility of Results
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