- Oral presentation
- Open Access
Imaging contrast agent concentration and extracellular volume fraction in the right ventricle
https://doi.org/10.1186/1532-429X-14-S1-O109
© Pagano et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012
- Published: 1 February 2012
Keywords
- Left Ventricle
- Right Ventricle
- Contrast Agent Concentration
- Diffuse Myocardial Fibrosis
- Extracellular Volume Fraction
Background
Globally increased myocardial extracellular volume fraction (ECVF) has been associated with diffuse myocardial fibrosis. ECVF can be estimated using blood and tissue concentrations of gadolinium contrast agent, [Gd], which are calculated using baseline and post-contrast T1 values [1]. To date, T1 quantification has been limited to the left ventricle (LV) with moderate spatial resolution (~2 mm) and long imaging windows (>200 ms) to accommodate breath-hold acquisitions. These methods have insufficient spatial resolution to image the relatively thin-walled right ventricle (RV). A new cine-imaging approach for the measurement of contrast agent concentration and ECVF using saturation-recovery preparation is evaluated in the LV and RV.
Methods
A saturation-recovery gated-segmented cine SSFP sequence, similar to the multi-contrast late enhancement imaging method [2], provides a short acquisition window (< 50 ms) enabling end-systolic imaging and higher spatial resolution (~1 mm). Bloch equation simulations of the sequence were used to generate a look-up table to relate the measured ratio of post- to pre-contrast image intensity to the tissue concentration of contrast agent (CLAIR - Contrast Level Assessment using Intensity Ratios). Short axis images were acquired in 9 subjects from an ongoing study of heart failure (Alberta HEART), with contrast-enhanced images at 15 min post 0.15mmol/kg Gadovist. Typical CLAIR pulse sequence parameters: FOV=300mm, 256 matrix, 8 mm slice, flip angle=73°, TE=1.66ms, TR=3.32ms, VPS=14, TI=300ms. Average LV [Gd] in subjects was compared to values obtained using a saturation-recovery SSFP T1-mapping sequence [3] calculated using [Gd] = ΔR1/r (ΔR1 = change in 1/T1 with contrast, r = relaxivity). For both methods ECVF = (1-Hct)*[Gd]Tissue/[Gd]Blood, with [Gd]Blood obtained via the T1 mapping sequence and an assumed Hct of 0.4. Data are presented as mean±SD and differences compared with the two-tailed paired Student’s t-test.
Results
CLAIR image (left) at end-systole (1.17 mm resolution, 46 ms temporal resolution) and conventional T1-mapping image at end-diastole (right) (1.88 mm resolution, 225 ms temporal resolution) from the same subject (15 minutes post contrast).
Comparison of CLAIR and conventional T1-mapping methods: LV contrast concentration (left) and Bland-Altman plot of extracellular volume fraction (right).
Conclusions
CLAIR yields similar LV myocardial contrast concentration and ECVF in the LV to T1-mapping and provides sufficient temporal and spatial resolution for end-systolic RV imaging.
Funding
CIHR.
Alberta HEART Team Grant.
Authors’ Affiliations
References
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- Chow : J Cardiov Magn Reson. 13 (Suppl1): P31-Google Scholar
Copyright
This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
