A method includes: accessing MRI data acquired from a joint area, the MRI data including a series of spatially mapped spectral data points; generating MRI images of the joint area; receiving information encoding a region of interest that encompasses a suspected metal particle deposition area over at least one of the MRI images; constructing magnetic field maps using the MRI data, each representing off-resonance frequency shifts over the joint area; removing a background of off-resonance field inhomogeneity from the magnetic field map such that the region of interest is free from off-resonance field inhomogeneity; identifying clusters from the magnetic field maps with the background of off-resonance field inhomogeneity removed, the clusters defined over a first dimension of offset frequencies and a second dimension of cluster volumes; and computing a quantitative metric by combining information from the identified clusters according to both the first dimension and the second dimension.
System and apparatus for assessing metallosis using magnetic resonance imaging