BACKGROUND Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an X-linked, inherited disorder causing dilated cardiomyopathy with variable onset and progression. Currently we lack objective markers of the effect of therapies targeted towards preventing progression of subclinical cardiac disease. Thus, our aim was to compare the ability of native T1 and extracellular volume (ECV) measurements to differentiate...

Background Myocardial T1 and extracellular volume (ECV) derived from cardiovascular MRIs are more and more widely accepted as important markers for diagnosis, risk prediction and monitoring of cardiac disease. Yet data regarding long-term stability of myocardial T1 mapping are lacking. The aim of this study was to investigate the long-term stability of native and postcontrast T1 mapping values ...

BACKGROUND Left atrial deformation (LAD) parameters are new markers of atrial structural remodelling that seem to be affected in atrial fibrillation (AF) and atrial flutter (AFL). This study aimed to determine whether LAD can identify patients with a higher risk of thrombosis and unsuccessful electrical cardioversion (ECV). METHODS Retrospective study including 56 patients with AF or AFL unde...

Background Right ventricular (RV) failure is associated with increasing morbidity and mortality in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Pressure overload in PAH leads to a complex series of changes in cardiomyocytes and the extracellular matrix of the RV. Thus, quantitative T1 mapping of the RV to assess myocardial extracellular volume fraction (ECV) may be a valuable noninvasive marker of RV...

Background Post-contrast cardiac T1 measurement has been reported to be correlated with interstitial fibrosis burden. However, post-contrast cardiac T1 can also be influenced by a variety of confounders, including: cardiac function, renal function, hematocrit, magnetic field strength, contrast agent type and dosage, and specific delayed imaging time after contrast agent administration. To compe...

Background Reference values for T1 mapping-derived extracellular volume fraction (ECV) in healthy individuals are not currently well established. Histological measurements in autopsy studies have shown decreasing ECV with healthy aging in men, however recent non-invasive measurements of ECV using different T1 mapping techniques are inconsistent with respect to the effect of aging and gender, wi...

Background Reduction of post-contrast T1 in remote normal myocardium was recently reported in patients with AMI, indicating that extracellular matrix expansion occurs in remote myocardium early after MI. Such extracellular matrix expansion observed in non-infarcted myocardium without edema seems to be one of key factors causing LV remodeling after MI. However, since the previous study only dete...

Discrepancies in body fluid estimates between segmental bioimpedance spectroscopy (SBIS) and gold-standard methods may be due to the use of a uniform value of tissue resistivity to compute extracellular fluid volume (ECV) and intracellular fluid volume (ICV). Discrepancies may also arise from the exclusion of fluid volumes of hands, feet, neck, and head from measurements due to electrode positi...

Methods In total, 24 patients (mean age 62 +/16 years) with degenerative moderate or severe asymptomatic MR with no class 1 indication for surgery were recruited from a dedicated valve clinic in a University Hospital and compared with gender matched controls. All subjects underwent cardiac MRI (1.5T Siemens Avanto) for assessment of LV volumes, deformation (SPAMM tagging), late gadolinium enhan...

Background Severe aortic stenosis (AS) induces diffuse interstitial myocardial fibrosis (MF). CMR late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) technique is useful to detect focal MF. The amount of MF is associated with worse long-term prognosis after aortic valve replacement surgery (AVR). Measurements of T1 relaxation times before and after gadolinium administration allow determination of myocardial extr...