Black-blood T2* technique for myocardial iron measurement in thalassemia

✍ Scribed by Taigang He; Peter D. Gatehouse; Paul Kirk; Mark A. Tanner; Gillian C. Smith; Jennifer Keegan; Raad H. Mohiaddin; Dudley J. Pennell; David N. Firmin

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 203 KB
• Volume: 25
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1053-1807
• DOI: 10.1002/jmri.20929

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Purpose

To compare the effectiveness and reproducibility of a new black‐blood sequence vs. a conventional bright‐blood gradient‐echo T2* sequence for myocardial iron overload measurement in thalassemia.

Materials and Methods

Twenty thalassemia patients were studied. Black‐blood sequence images were acquired in diastole after a double inversion recovery (DIR) preparation pulse. Bright‐blood sequence images were acquired in both early systole and late diastole. The data were randomized and the T2* analysis was performed blindly by two independent observers.

Results

The T2* values from the black‐blood sequence were comparable to those of the conventional bright‐blood sequence (25.7 ± 12.9 msec vs. 26.4 ± 14.2 msec in early systole, P = 0.44; and 25.2 ± 13.1 msec in late diastole, P = 0.41). The coefficient of variation (CV) for black‐blood image T2* analysis was 4.1% compared with 8.9% (early systole P = 0.03) and 7.8% (late diastole P = 0.05) for bright‐blood image analysis.

Conclusion

The black‐blood T2* technique yields high‐contrast myocardial images, provides clearly depicted myocardial borders, and avoids blood signal contamination of the myocardium while yielding improvements in interobserver variability. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2007;25:1205–1209. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.