Age and Gender Impact the Measurement of Myocardial Interstitial Fibrosis in a Healthy Adult Chinese Population: A Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Study

Abstract

Background: Diffuse myocardial fibrosis is a common pathological process in many cardiovascular diseases. In order to determine disease, we must have standard normal imaging values. We investigated myocardial interstitial fibrosis of the left ventricle (LV) in a healthy population of Chinese adults and explored the impact of gender, age, and other physiological factors using a T1 mapping technique of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR).Materials and Methods: We recruited 69 healthy adult Chinese subjects (35 males; age 18–76). LV function and global strain were obtained from functional imaging. T1 mapping was performed using a modified look-locker sequence. Global and segmental native T1 and extracellular volume (ECV) were calculated using dedicated software. Gender, age, and segmental variation of both native myocardial T1 and ECV of the LV were analyzed.Results: The global myocardial native T1 and ECV of the LV in this Chinese adult healthy population was 1,202 ± 45 ms and 27 ± 3% at 3T field strength, respectively. Females had a higher myocardial native T1 and ECV of the LV compared to males [1,210 (1,188–1,264) ms vs. 1,182 (1,150–1,211) ms, P < 0.001; 28 ± 3 vs. 26 ± 3%, P = 0.027, respectively]. ECV in older group was higher than younger group [27 (26–29)% vs. 25 (24–29), P = 0.019]. The multi-variate linear regression analysis showed that only gender (Beta = −0.512, P < 0.001) was independently related with global native T1 of LV while gender (Beta = −0.278, P = 0.017) and age (Beta = 0.303, P = 0.010) were independently related with global ECV of LV. From the base to apex of the LV, myocardial native T1 (P = 0.020) and ECV (P < 0.001) significantly increased. Within the same slice of the LV, there were significant segmental variations of both myocardial native T1 (P < 0.001) and ECV (P < 0.001) values.Conclusion: Gender and age have significant impacts on the imaging markers of myocardial interstitial fibrosis in healthy adult Chinese volunteers. Segmental variation of myocardial interstitial fibrosis was also observed.

Myocardial T1 mapping using SMART1Map and MOLLI mapping in asymptomatic patients with recent extracardiac sarcoidosis

“…The reason for the different results is not fully clear—generally saturation methods show significantly lower ECV values in comparison with inversion recovery methods, so standardized thresholds need to be defined independently for each sequence, ideally for each CMR unit and scanner. Similarly, the MOLI ECV values (30.9 ± 2.9% and 31.6 ± 8.3%) were moderately higher than previously reported MOLLI ECV values (25‐27%) at 3.0 T scanners 26,27,30,31 . However, this is the first study performed using a GE 3.0 T scanner for ECV measurement, and so far data have been gained using scanners from different vendors and also different MOLLI sequences, so the comparison is problematic.…”

Regional Amyloid Burden Differences Evaluated Using Quantitative Cardiac MRI in Patients with Cardiac Amyloidosis

“…The control group's apical ECV (28.8%) was higher than its basal and mid ECVs (25.9% and 25.8%, respectively), which is a known feature [ 27 ]. In group 2, there was a reverse pattern of ECV differences between the basal, mid, and apical regions ( p < 0.001) ( Fig.…”

Reversibility of Cardiac Involvement in Acromegaly Patients After Surgery: 12-Month Follow-up Using Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance

“…However, this study is currently among the largest of its kind, and the highly objective and reproducible assessments of CMR were able to yield reliable results with limited samples (19). Second, three articles were candidates for healthy Chinese CMR reference values for this study (18,38,39). Dong and Lei's studies had smaller sample sizes than Le's study, and their reference ranges were not given according to age, precluding our acquisition of qualitative data by converting absolute CMR values into z scores.…”