Myocardial T1 rho mapping of patients with end-stage renal disease and its comparison with T1 mapping and T2 mapping: A feasibility and reproducibility study.

Purpose To evaluate the feasibility of T1rho mapping in myocardium at 3T and to determine whether T1rho mapping could better characterize myocardial injury in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients compared to T1 and T2 mapping. Materials and Methods T1rho mapping, T1 mapping, and T2 mapping were performed at 3T on 35 healthy volunteers (15 males, 20 females, 40.7 ± 13.6 years) and 32 ESRD patients (16 males, 16 females, 48.6 ± 11.9 years). The mean T1rho, T1, and T2 values were compared using Student's t-test and correlated with cardiac function parameters, including peak ejection rate (PER), short-axis percent thickening (SAPT), peak filling rate (PFR), and time to peak filling (TTPF). Results The mean T1rho values (49.4 ± 2.6 msec vs. 52.2 ± 4.0 msec, P = 0.001) and T2 values (50.5 ± 2.5 msec vs. 54.1 ± 4.0 msec, P < 0.001) were significantly different between the volunteers and patients, but there were no significant differences between the two groups in the T1 values (1253.1 ± 71.6 msec vs. 1273.4 ± 41.7 msec, P = 0.157). The mean T1rho values were negatively correlated with the PER (r = –0.397; P = 0.03), SAPT (r = –0.688; P < 0.001), and PFR (r = –0.537; P = 0.002), whereas positively correlated with the TTPF (r = 0.677; P < 0.001). The mean T2 values were negatively correlated only with the SAPT (r = –0.427; P = 0.019) in the ESRD patients. Conclusion T1rho mapping of the myocardium is feasible at 3T. T1rho values are higher in ESRD patients and relate to cardiac function, which may better characterize myocardial injury than can T1 and T2. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2016;44:723–731.