Liao Xueyin, Wang Xiaoqi, Xu Zhentan, Guo Shiwei, Gu Congmin, Jin Zhengyu, Su Tong, Chen Yu, Xue Huadan, Yang Mingyong
Plastic Surgery Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
Philips Healthcare, the World Profit Centre, Beijing, China.
Quant Imaging Med Surg. 2022 May;12(5):2830-2840. doi: 10.21037/qims-21-570.
Autologous fat grafting is a procedure that treats soft tissue defects by reallocating fat to improve a patient's physical appearance. Imaging methods may be used to evaluate and monitor the grafted fat after transplantation. The goal of imaging is to examine the signal and volume of the grafted fat after autologous fat grafting during the adipose tissue recovery. However, researchers have yet to examine the feasibility of using fat-only imaging to assess the autologous fat graft.
In this prospective and observational study, 46 injected sides in 23 female patients (age 35±7.8 years) were included in the image evaluation. The patients underwent autologous fat grafting surgery with filtered and washed fat. A total of 16, 18, and 12 sides were scanned 7 days, 3 months, and 1 year after fat grafting, respectively. Fat-only images were obtained using Dixon imaging, and then the image quality and contrast of the T1W and T2W were rated to evaluate the application of this method when imaging the autologous fat. The signal and volume of the autologous fat graft were recorded to assess the retention during recovery of the autologous fat tissue.
Fat-only T1W magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to identify and delineate grafted fat because this method had better image quality and image differentiation than did T2W MRI. The average signal contrast and retention rate measured 7 days postoperation (28.8%±4.7%; 94.1%±5.8%) was the highest and then decreased at 3 months (16.3%±2.1%; 48.7%±17.3%) and 1 year (3.3%±1.3%, 33.1%±12.9%) after surgery. There were statistically significant differences between the signal and volume retention measurements at each postoperative recovery phase.
The T1W fat-only images produced by Dixon MRI is a feasible approach for identifying grafted fat and measure postoperative changes during clinical evaluation. We found a significant decrease in signal contrast and volume of the grafted fat from the surgery date to 3 months postoperation and from 3 months to 1-year postoperation.
自体脂肪移植是一种通过重新分配脂肪来治疗软组织缺损以改善患者外貌的手术。成像方法可用于评估和监测移植后的脂肪。成像的目的是在脂肪组织恢复过程中检查自体脂肪移植后脂肪的信号和体积。然而，研究人员尚未研究仅使用脂肪成像来评估自体脂肪移植的可行性。
在这项前瞻性观察研究中，纳入了23名女性患者（年龄35±7.8岁）的46个注射部位进行图像评估。患者接受了过滤和清洗后的脂肪进行自体脂肪移植手术。分别在脂肪移植后7天、3个月和1年对总共16、18和12个部位进行扫描。使用狄克逊成像获得仅脂肪图像，然后对T1W和T2W的图像质量和对比度进行评分，以评估该方法在对自体脂肪成像时的应用。记录自体脂肪移植的信号和体积，以评估自体脂肪组织恢复过程中的留存情况。
仅脂肪T1W磁共振成像（MRI）用于识别和描绘移植的脂肪，因为该方法比T2W MRI具有更好的图像质量和图像区分度。术后7天测量的平均信号对比度和留存率（28.8%±4.7%；94.1%±5.8%）最高，然后在术后3个月（16.3%±2.1%；48.7%±17.3%）和1年（3.3%±1.3%，33.1%±12.9%）下降。各术后恢复阶段的信号和体积留存测量之间存在统计学显著差异。
狄克逊MRI产生的仅脂肪T1W图像是在临床评估中识别移植脂肪并测量术后变化的可行方法。我们发现从手术日期到术后3个月以及从3个月到术后1年，移植脂肪的信号对比度和体积显著下降。
