T1 mapping for detection of left ventricular myocardial fibrosis in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: a preliminary study

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the diagnostic value of T1 mapping imaging of evaluating fibrosis in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM).

Materials and methods: 21 subjects with HCM and 18 healthy volunteers underwent conventional late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) imaging and T1 mapping imaging. The region of myocardium in HCM is divided into remote area of LGE, peri-LGE, LGE (halo-like LGE and typical patchy LGE). These regions combined with normal volunteers' myocardium were calculated by the reduced percent of T1 value (RPTV).

Results: The RPTV in healthy volunteers was no significant comparing with that in the remote area of LGE in HCM subjects (3.98 ± 3.19 vs. 3.34 ± 2.75, P>0.05). There were significant statistical differences in pairwise among the remote area of LGE, peri-LGE, halo-like LGE and typical patchy LGE in the RPTV (P<0.0001). ROC curves indicated that the T1 mapping imaging has a greater area under the curve comparing with that of traditional LGE imaging (0.975 ± 0.07 vs. 0.753 ± 0.26, P<0.0001).

Conclusions: HCM has a high prevalence of fibrosis and with varying severity. T1 mapping imaging can be a useful method to evaluate the severity of the fibrosis in HCM.