Intragastric oil-in-water emulsion fat fraction measured using inversion recovery echo-planar magnetic resonance imaging

The fat fraction of an oil-in-water emulsion was measured in vitro and in vivo in the gastric lumen using inversion recovery echo-planar magnetic resonance imaging and a non-exchanging, 2-compartment longitudinal relaxation model. This predicted the oil emulsion fat fraction in vitro well (Pearson's R= 0.97). Intragastric measurements in vivo correlated well with nasogastric aspirates taken from the stomachs of 7 healthy human subjects (R= 0.72). This method has potentially important applications in studying the properties of oil-in-water emulsions and also in assessing the intragastric distribution of fat emulsions in vivo and in correlating physiologic gastric emptying of fat and lipid blood absorption profiles.