Black-blood T2* technique for myocardial iron measurement in thalassemia.
OBJECTIVE
To compare the effectiveness and reproducibility of a new black-blood sequence vs. a conventional bright-blood gradient-echo T2* sequence for myocardial iron overload measurement in thalassemia.


METHODS
Twenty thalassemia patients were studied. Black-blood sequence images were acquired in diastole after a double inversion recovery (DIR) preparation pulse. Bright-blood sequence images were acquired in both early systole and late diastole. The data were randomized and the T2* analysis was performed blindly by two independent observers.


RESULTS
The T2* values from the black-blood sequence were comparable to those of the conventional bright-blood sequence (25.7 +/- 12.9 msec vs. 26.4 +/- 14.2 msec in early systole, P = 0.44; and 25.2 +/- 13.1 msec in late diastole, P = 0.41). The coefficient of variation (CV) for black-blood image T2* analysis was 4.1% compared with 8.9% (early systole P = 0.03) and 7.8% (late diastole P = 0.05) for bright-blood image analysis.


CONCLUSIONS
The black-blood T2* technique yields high-contrast myocardial images, provides clearly depicted myocardial borders, and avoids blood signal contamination of the myocardium while yielding improvements in interobserver variability.
He
Taigang
T
Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Unit, Royal Brompton Hospital and Imperial College, Sydney Street, London, United Kingdom. t.he@ic.ac.uk
Gatehouse
Peter D
PD
Kirk
Paul
P
Tanner
Mark A
MA
Smith
Gillian C
GC
Keegan
Jennifer
J
Mohiaddin
Raad H
RH
Pennell
Dudley J
DJ
Firmin
David N
DN
D000328:Adult; D003971:Diastole; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D019190:Iron Overload / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D009206:Myocardium / Q000378:metabolism*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013789:Thalassemia / Q000378:metabolism*