Black-blood T2* technique for myocardial iron measurement in thalassemia

Abstract

Purpose: To compare the effectiveness and reproducibility of a new black-blood sequence vs. a conventional bright-blood gradient-echo T2* sequence for myocardial iron over-load measurement in thalassemia. Materials and 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. Conclusion: 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 interob-server variability. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.