MRI measurements
expiration breath
BLIND
The GCV measurements were acquired using two single-shot turbo spin echo (TSE) sequences with two different TE (echo time), one with 60 min and the other 300 min, each of which lasted 22 and 36 s, respectively. Each had twenty contiguous slices, which were 10 mm thick and were acquired with in-plane resolution of 1·5 mm x 1·88 mm with no gap between slices but were reconstructed to 1 × 1 pixel size. The scans were acquired in expiration breath hold. The 36-s breath hold was split into two for convenience of the participant. This imaging sequence produced a good contrast between the stomach contents and other abdominal organs.SBWC was acquired using a previously described and validated technique applying a fat-saturated coronal single-shot turbo spin echo sequence acquiring twenty contiguous coronal slices with reconstructed in-plane resolution of 0·78 mm × 0·78 mm and slice thickness of 7 mm with no gaps between slices, TE = 400 min and TR 1159 min. Data were collected during an expiration breath hold of 23 s.Axial, coronal and sagittal balanced turbo gradient echo bright blood localiser scans were used to position the flow measurement plane perpendicular to the SMA. The SMA blood flux was measured using a 2D gradient echo cine phase contrast MRI scan with TE = 3·3 ms, TR = 7·5 ms and flip angle 25°. Reconstructed in-plane resolution was 1·17 mm × 1·17 mm and slice thickness 6 mm, velocity encoding 140 cm/s with flow encoding through plane. This was acquired in a 14-s breath hold.Gastric image analysis was performed, blind to the feed, using MIPAV (Medical Imaging Processing, Analysis and Visualization) software v9.0.0 The SBWC images were analysed using validated in-house custom written software (IDL 6·4, Research Systems Inc.)The SMA blood flux data were analysed using validated manufacturer’s software (Philips QFlow software) developed to assess the blood flow in different areas of human body