Longer-Duration BF Can Decrease Fat Content in Bone, Muscle

Background: The MRI technique called chemical shift encoding-based water-fat MRI (CSE-MRI) can measure the fat content in the bone marrow and in muscle. Therefore, bone mineral density (BMD) and muscle composition can be implied by the inverse relation to measured fat content. Furthermore, the effect of breastfeeding (BF) duration on such fat content, which might provide important clinical information, has not been well determined. Objective: To evaluate the effect of BF duration on the fat density in the vertebral bone marrow and the paraspinal muscle (PSM). Methods: This institutional review board–approved study evaluated BF females with and without a history of gestational diabetes. These subjects were initially enrolled from April 2013 to September 2015. They underwent 3 MRIs, including at baseline (at 6 to 15 months postpartum) and at 5 years. MRI examinations were performed on a 3T MRI scanner using a whole-body protocol, which included a 3 echo 3D gradient-echo sequence. more...