Effects of gender, age, and body mass index on fat contents and apparent diffusion coefficients in healthy parotid glands: an MRI evaluation

Objectives To establish standard apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and the fat content as a function of age, gender and body mass index (BMI) in healthy parotid glands, and to address the influences of fat suppression on ADC measurements. Methods A total of 100 healthy adults (gender and age evenly distributed) were prospectively recruited, with parotid fat content measured from gradient-echo images with fat–water separated using iterative decomposition with echo asymmetry and least squares (IDEAL). The ADCs were estimated using both fat-saturated and non-fat-saturated diffusion-weighted imaging via a periodically rotated overlapping parallel lines with enhanced reconstruction (PROPELLER) technique. Results Parotid fat content was larger in men than in women by about 10 percentage points ( P < 0.005), and positively associated with BMI and age for both genders (mostly with P < 0.001). ADCs estimated with non-fat-saturated PROPELLER were significantly lower in men than in women ( P < 0.005), but showed no gender difference if measured using fat-saturated PROPELLER ( P = 0.840). The negative association between parotid ADC and age/BMI/fat ( P < 0.001) showed greater regression slopes in non-fat-saturated PROPELLER than in fat-saturated data. Conclusions Parotid fat content in healthy adults correlates positively with both age and BMI; the correlation with age is gender-dependent. Parotid ADC measurements are strongly influenced by fat saturation. Key Points • Parotid fat content in healthy adults correlates positively with age and BMI . • The rate of aging-related increase in fat contents is gender-dependent . • Parotid ADC measurements are strongly influenced by fat saturation .