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Updated: May 19, 2026
Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Skeletal Muscle Disease
Published on: December 18, 2016
Automated truncation method for myocardial T2* measurement in thalassemia
Taigang He1, Jun Zhang, John-Paul Carpenter
1Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Unit, Royal Brompton Hospital, London, UK. t.he@imperial.ac.uk
Purpose:
To propose an automated truncation method for myocardial T2* measurement and evaluate this method on a large population of patients with iron loading in the heart and scanned at multiple magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) centers.
Materials And Methods:
A total of 550 thalassemia patients were scanned at 20 international centers using a variety of MR scanners (Siemens, Philips, or GE). A single mid-ventricular short axis slice was imaged. All patient data were anonymized before the T2* were measured by expert observers using standard techniques. These same datasets were then retrospectively processed using the proposed automated truncation method by another independent observer and the resulting T2* measurements were compared with those of expert readings.
Results:
The T2* measurements using the automated method showed good agreement with those measured by expert observers using standard techniques (P = 0.95) with a low coefficient of variation (1.6%).
Conclusion:
This study demonstrates feasibility and good reproducibility of a new automated truncation method for myocardial T2* measurement. This approach simplifies the overall analysis and can be easily incorporated into T2* analysis software to facilitate further development of a fully automated myocardial tissue iron quantification.
