Myocardial T1 and T2 mapping in diastolic and systolic phase

The aim of this study was to evaluate the regional (i.e. myocardial segments) variability as well as the overall image quality of cardiac T1 and T2 maps obtained in diastole and in systole. In 22 healthy subjects (group-1), diastolic T1 and T2 maps were obtained at 1.5 T in short-axis view at basal, mid-ventricular and apical level, as well as in 4-chamber (4 ch) and in 2-chamber (2 ch) views. In another group of 25 patients (group-2), the maps were obtained in both diastole and systole. In the group-1, 15.4% of myocardial segments in T1 maps and 0.8% of myocardial segments in T2 maps, mainly located at apical level, showed relevant artifacts and/or partial-volume effect and had to be discarded. We found no significant difference in T1 values among basal, mid-ventricular and apical segments. T2 values at apical level were significantly higher than at basal and mid-ventricular level (short-axis, p < 0.0001; 4 ch, p < 0.009; 2 ch, p = 0.0002 at ANOVA tests). In the group-2, 21.1%/5.3% and 4.0%/0.8% of segments showed relevant artifacts in diastolic/systolic T1 and T2 maps, respectively. Apical T2 values were significantly lower in systole than in diastole. In systole, there were no significant differences in T1/T2 among basal, mid-ventricular and apical segments. The overall quality of T1 and T2 maps drops in apical segments. This could be problematic when evaluating focal myocardial changes. The acquisition in systole increases the number of evaluable segments.