N. Papanikolaou et al., Non-invasive myocardial iron assessment in thalassaemic patients - T2 relaxometry and magnetization transfer ratio measurements, ACT RADIOL, 41(4), 2000, pp. 348-351
Purpose: To compare T2 relaxometry and magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) m
easurements of myocardial tissue in normal volunteers and thalassaemic pati
ents for assessment of the myocardial iron levels.
Material and Methods: All examinations were done on a 1 T MR system using a
multi-echo spin-echo sequence with 8 echoes for T2 measurements and a grad
ient echo sequence for MTR measurements. Diastolic cardiac triggering was u
sed in both sequences. Ten patients and 10 normal subjects were included in
the study. T2 and MTR measurements were correlated with serum ferritin lev
els.
Results: Regression analysis between T2 and MTR measurements and ferritin d
emonstrated a reversed linear relationship, (r=-0.932, p<0.05) and (r = -0.
824, p<0.05), respectively. Mean T2, relaxation time and mean MTR of the no
rmal subjects (57.95+/-4.9 ms and 43.70+/-3.3%) was significantly higher th
an that of the thalassaemic patients (38.8+/-6.2 ms and 26.40+/-6.1%) (p<0.
01), respectively.
Conclusion: MTR measurements can be used to complement T2 measurements for
non-invasive myocardial iron assessment.