Background Cardiac involvement in systemic light-chain (AL) amyloidosis is caused by the extracellular deposition of misfolded AL immunoglobulin and carries a poor prognosis. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) T1 mapping and extracellular volume (ECV) measurements may have advantages over late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) for early diagnosis and quantifying of amyloid burden. The aim of this stud...

BACKGROUND Myocardial fibrosis quantified by myocardial extracellular volume fraction (ECV) and left ventricular mass (LVM) index (LVMI) measured by cardiovascular magnetic resonance might represent independent and opposing contributors to ECG voltage measures of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). Diffuse myocardial fibrosis can occur in LVH and interfere with ECG voltage measures. This phenom...

We studied the effect of inhibition of the prostaglandin (PG)-synthesizing enzyme system in female Sprague-Dawley rats following acute expansion of the extracellular fluid volume (ECV). In 57 conscious rats expansion of the ECV with isotonic saline corresponding to an increase in body weight of 10% was induced. Prior to ECV expansion 31 rats received indomethacin (10 mg/kg of body wt) by stomac...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW This review article discusses the evolution of extracellular volume (ECV) quantification using both cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) and computed tomography (CT). RECENT FINDINGS Visualizing diffuse myocardial fibrosis is challenging and until recently, was restricted to the domain of the pathologist. CMR and CT both use extravascular, extracellular contrast agents, p...

BACKGROUND Expansion of the myocardial extracellular volume (ECV) is a surrogate measure of focal/diffuse fibrosis and is an independent marker of prognosis in chronic heart disease. Changes in ECV may also occur after myocardial infarction, acutely because of oedema and in convalescence as part of ventricular remodelling. The objective of this study was to investigate changes in the pattern of...

Background Cardiac involvement drives outcome in systemic AL amyloidosis. Late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) CMR is useful for the detection of cardiac amyloid, but characteristic LGE patterns do not always occur or may appear late in the disease. Using CMR T1 mapping, we measured the pre contrast myocardial T1 and myocardial Extracellular Volume (ECV), reflecting myocardial amyloidosis burden a...

IMPORTANCE Although white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) are associated with the risk for Alzheimer disease, it is unknown whether they represent an independent source of impairment or interact with known markers of disease. OBJECTIVE To examine the degree to which WMHs predict aggressive cognitive decline among individuals with mild cognitive impairment, either independently or by modifying ...

BACKGROUND Late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) imaging overestimates acute infarct size. The main aim of this study was to investigate whether acute extracellular volume (ECV) maps can reliably quantify myocardial area at risk (AAR) and final infarct size (IS). METHODS AND RESULTS Fifty patients underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging acutely (24-72 hours) and at convalescence (3 mo...

BACKGROUND Myocardial extracellular volume (ECV) is elevated in fibrosis or infiltration and can be quantified by measuring the haematocrit with pre and post contrast T1 at sufficient contrast equilibrium. Equilibrium CMR (EQ-CMR), using a bolus-infusion protocol, has been shown to provide robust measurements of ECV using a multibreath-hold T1 pulse sequence. Newer, faster sequences for T1 mapp...

Background Interstitial myocardial fibrosis is a histological hallmark of non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), and may play an important role in adverse remodelling and progressive systolic dysfunction. T1-mapping enables noninvasive assessment of diffuse fibrosis by quantification of myocardial extracellular volume fraction (ECV). We hypothesized that CMR would identify a raised ECV in D...