Abstract
We investigated the response of skeletal muscle global T1 under different physiological and pathological conditions using an inversion-recovery radial T1 mapping sequence. Thirty five healthy volunteers, seven patients with Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD) and seven patients with sporadic inclusion body myositis (IBM) were investigated in order to evaluate the effects of gender, age, muscle group, exercise and pathological processes on global T1 values. In addition, the intramuscular fat content was measured using 3-point Dixon and the global T2 and water T2 (T2H2O) were determined with a multi-spin-echo sequence. In the muscles of healthy volunteers, there was no impact of age on global T1. However, we measured a significant effect of sex and muscle group. After exercise, a significant 7.7% increase of global T1 was measured in the recruited muscles, and global T1 variations were highly correlated to T2H2O variations (R = 0.91). In pathologies, global T1 values were reduced in fat infiltrated muscles. When fat fraction was taken into account, global T1 values were higher in IBM patients compared to BMD. Global T1 variations are a sensitive indicator of tissue changes in skeletal muscle related to several physiological and pathological events.
Highlights
Most neuromuscular disorders (NMDs) are accompanied by pathophysiological and structural changes that nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging can detect
While it is well established that global T1 values are strongly decreased at late stages of diseases, when muscle tissues are replaced by fat[14,15,16], the effects of water compartmentation and distribution on muscle T1 are still poorly referenced and understood
We investigated skeletal muscle tissues T1 variations under different physiological and pathophysiological conditions using a fast IR-radial T1 mapping sequence
Summary
Most neuromuscular disorders (NMDs) are accompanied by pathophysiological and structural changes that nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging can detect. Elevated muscle T2H2O values have been measured in several NMDs such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD)[5,6,7], inflammatory myopathies[4,8,9,10] and Pompe disease[11]. This biomarker has been shown to be sensitive to the therapeutic effects of corticosteroid treatment in juvenile dermatomyositis[4] and in DMD patients[12]. Elevated T1 values were observed in the canine DMD model[23]
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