(DE FGRE, Dual/FFE, DE FFE) Simultaneously acquired in and
out of phase TE
gradient echo images. To quantitatively measure the
signal intensity differences between
out of phase and
in phase images the parameters should be the same except for the TE.
The
chemical shift artifact appearing on the out-of-phase image allows for the detection of lipids in the
liver or adrenal gland, such as diffuse fatty infiltration, focal fatty infiltration, focal fatty sparing, benign adrenocortical masses and intracellular lipids within a hepatocellar neoplasm, where
spin echo and
fat suppression techniques are not as sensitive. Specific pathologies that have been reported include
liver lipoma, angiomyolipoma, myelolipoma, metastatic lipo
sarcoma, teratocarcinoma, melanoma, haemorrhagic neoplasm and metastatic choriocarcinoma.