Abstract
BackgroundMyocardial T1, T2 and T2* imaging techniques become increasingly used in clinical practice. While normal values for T1, T2 and T2* times are well established for 1.5 Tesla (T) cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR), data for 3T remain scarce. Therefore we sought to determine normal reference values relative to gender and age and day to day reproducibility for native T1, T2, T2* mapping and extracellular volume (ECV) at 3T in healthy subjects.MethodsAfter careful exclusion of cardiovascular abnormality, 75 healthy subjects aged 20 to 90 years old (mean 56 ± 19 years, 47% women) underwent left-ventricular T1 (3-(3)-3-(3)-5 MOLLI)), T2 (8 echo- spin echo-imaging) and T2 * (8 echo gradient echo imaging) mapping at 3T CMR (Philips Ingenia 3T and computation of extracellular volume after administration of 0.2 mmol/kg Gadovist). Inter- and intra-observer reproducibility was estimated by intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Day to day reproducibility was assessed in 10 other volunteers.ResultsMean myocardial T1 at 3T was 1122 ± 57 ms, T2 52 ± 6 ms, T2* 24 ± 5 ms and ECV 26.6 ± 3.2%. T1 (1139 ± 37 vs 1109 ± 73 ms, p < 0.05) and ECV (28 ± 3 vs 25 ± 2%, p < 0.001), but not T2 (53 ± 8 vs 51 ± 4, p = NS) were significantly greater in age matched women than in men. T1 (r = 0.40, p < 0.001) and ECV (r = 0.37, p = 0.001) increased, while T2 decreased significantly (r = −0.25, p < 0.05) with increasing age. T2* was not influenced by either gender or age. Intra and inter-observer reproducibility was high (ICC ranging between 0.81-0.99), and day to day coefficient of variation was low (6.2% for T1, 7% for T2, 11% for T2* and 11.5% for ECV).ConclusionsWe provide normal myocardial T2, T2*,T1 and ECV reference values for 3T CMR which are significantly different from those reported at 1.5 Tesla CMR. Myocardial T1 and ECV values are gender and age dependent. Measurement had high inter and intra-observer reproducibility and good day-to-day reproducibility.
Highlights
Myocardial T1, T2 and T2* imaging techniques become increasingly used in clinical practice
While several earlier studies reported the normal range of T1, T2 and extracellular volume (ECV) in healthy subjects, most of these studies were performed at 1.5 T and no study reported all of these values in the same population
As in vitro myocardial T1 measurements are approximately 30-40% higher at 3T than at 1.5 T, our values at 3T were higher than reference values at 1.5 T, but relatively similar to those reported by von Knobelsdorf at 3T [10, 23] whereas Dabir et al [11] reported shorter and Kawel et al, using 8 image short MOLLI [20] longer T1 times than we
Summary
Myocardial T1, T2 and T2* imaging techniques become increasingly used in clinical practice. While normal values for T1, T2 and T2* times are well established for 1.5 Tesla (T) cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR), data for 3T remain scarce. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) myocardial tissue mapping techniques become more and more widely used in clinical practice. They allow to pixel wise measurement of T1, T2 and T2* time constants in the heart and offer new opportunities for non-. T2* mapping is established to diagnose and monitor the iron overload in cardiac and liver tissues [8] It has been used for diagnosis of intramyocardial hemorrhage [9]. We evaluated inter and intra-observer and day-to-day reproducibility aiming to determine how well these parameters are suited to serially follow patients over time
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