MRI-measured myocardial iron load in patients with severe diabetic heart failure

To investigate whether a correlation exists between abnormal myocardial iron status and cardiac lipid deposition as well as other biomarkers in patients with diabetic heart failure (DHF).

Seventeen volunteers (Group 1), 26 patients with non-severe DHF (Group 2), and 25 patients with severe DHF (Group 3) were recruited for this study. Myocardial middle-section T2* mapping and septal ¹H magnetic resonance spectroscopy (¹H-MRS) were performed using a 3 T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine to assess the iron status and lipid deposition individually. Fasting venous blood was used to examine serum biomarkers.

Cardiac T2* (ms) of the three groups were 22.8±2.1, 21.7±1.8, and 18.6±1.3, respectively. The value of Group 3 was significantly lower than that of the other two groups (p<0.001). Myocardial triglyceride (%) levels differed among the three groups (Group 1, 0.53±0.13; Group 2, 1.11±0.29; Group 3, 1.47±0.12; p<0.001). Cardiac T2* was inversely correlated with both cardiac triglycerides and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in overall participants (Groups 1-3) or Group 3 (each p<0.001).

Abnormal myocardial iron status was found in patients with severe diabetic heart failure. Myocardial lipotoxicity may be responsible for this process.