32 channel torso coil

MRI was performed using a 3.0-T scanner (Achieva; Philips Healthcare, Best, The Netherlands) with a 32-channel torso coil. The breath-hold technique was used to minimise respiratory motion artefacts. Volume shimming was used to minimise B0 inhomogeneity. In addition, a rotary echo spin-lock pulse was used in a two-dimensional fast field-echo sequence for the acquisition of T1ρ–weighted data, with a spin-lock frequency of 1,000 Hz at spin-lock times (SLTs) of 0, 10, 20, 40, and 60 ms. The other imaging parameters were as follows: repetition time ms/echo time, 4.3/2.2 ms; flip angle, 10°; number of signals acquired, 1; specific absorption rate, < 0.7 W/kg; field of view, 360 mm; section thickness, 10 mm; acquisition matrix, 2.25 mm × 2.23 mm; and reconstruction matrix, 1.41 mm × 1.41 mm. A total of 11 images were acquired per patient, which enabled coverage of the whole liver in 1 min and 30 s for each SLT. This resulted in a total acquisition time of approximately 12 min (depending on each individual’s respiratory frequency). Supplementary Fig. 1 shows the sample images.