Ces radiol. 2013, 67(3):196-203

Quantitative assessment of myocardial fibrosis using MRI - a pilot studyOriginal article

Lucie Súkupová¹, Jaroslav Tintěra¹, Dana Kautznerová¹, Radka Kočková²

¹ Základna radiodiagnostiky a intervenční radiologie IKEM, Praha

² Klinika kardiologie IKEM, Praha

Aim: The dependence of T1-relaxation of myocardium on time since contrast administration can be used for quantitative assessment of myocardial fibrosis because kinetics of contrast medium is influenced by the amount of myocardial fibrosis. Shortening of T1-relaxation time is proportional to the amount of the contrast medium concentrated in the extracellular space. There exists a dependence between volume of extracellular space and myocardial fibrosis, therefore T1-mapping can be used for quantitative assessment of myocardial fibrosis.

Methods: For myocardial fibrosis assessment, the MOLLI sequence was used for evaluation of signal of 11 images made with different effective inversion times and T1-value was determined. T1-mapping was performed before and after care bolus of the contrast medium for patients with different diagnoses.

Results: A difference between T1-values for different diagnoses was found. The shortest T1-value, therefore the worse wash-out of the contrast medium, was determined for storage diseases. On the other hand, there was not any difference in T1-values between controls and patients with myocarditis.

Conclusion: The T1-mapping can be used for quantification of myocardial fibrosis. The results should be compared with results from myocardial biopsies.

Keywords: cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, cardiomyopathy, fibrosis, MOLLI sequence, T1-relaxation of myocardium

Grants and funding:

Institucionální výzkumný záměr IKEM 00023001.

Accepted: March 15, 2013; Published: September 1, 2013  Show citation