Cardiovasc Imaging Asia.  2017 Apr;1(2):110-115. 10.22468/cvia.2016.00129.

Gender Differences in Native Myocardial T1 in a Healthy Chinese Volunteer Cohort

• Bulluck H
• Bryant JA
• Tan JZ
• Go YY
• Le TT
• Tan RS
• Lim TK
• Tang HC
• Lath N
• Low AS
• Chin CWL
• Cook SA
• Hausenloy DJ

• KMID: 2524837
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.22468/cvia.2016.00129

Abstract

Objective
T1 mapping cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is emerging as a promising imaging biomarker. However, there are conflicting reports on whether myocardial T1 is affected by age, gender, heart rate, and blood T1. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the influence of these parameters on myocardial T1 at 1.5T in a healthy Chinese cohort.
Materials and Methods
101 healthy Chinese volunteers underwent CMR (Siemens Aera 1.5T scanner). A mid-ventricular short axis modified Look-Locker inversion recovery T1 map was acquired. The images were analyzed on CVI42. Manual regions of interest were drawn in the inferior septum and in the blood pool.
Results
Participants’ mean age was 46±13 (range 21 to 68) years and 51 out of 101 patients (51%) were males. Females in this study had significantly higher myocardial T1 and blood T1 values than males (1025±26 ms vs. 1001±23 ms, p<0.001; and 1659±60 ms vs. 1577±54 ms, p<0.001 respectively). There was no correlation between myocardial T1 and age. Blood T1 and heart rate correlated with myocardial T1 in females, but not in males and both were significantly associated with myocardial T1 in a multivariate analysis. After adjusting myocardial T1 for heart rate and blood T1 in females, the standard deviation reduced by 12% but the gender difference was still present.
Conclusion
Gender-specific T1 values should be established by each center, and heart rate and blood T1 should be taken into account in female participants. This would be important in order to reliably detect small changes in native T1 in pathologies with diffuse interstitial fibrosis.

Keyword

Magnetic resonance imaging; Myocardium; Reference values; Sex; Healthy volunteers