Research

Multi-center transferability of a breath-hold T2 technique for myocardial iron assessment

Taigang He^1,2 , Paul Kirk^1,2 , David N Firmin^1,2 , Wynnie M Lam³ , Winnie CW Chu³ , Wing-Yan Au⁴ , Godfrey CF Chan⁵ , Ru San Tan⁶ , Ivy Ng⁷ , Selen Biceroglu⁸ , Yesim Aydinok⁸ , Mark A Fogel⁹ , Alan R Cohen⁹ and Dudley J Pennell^1,2

¹National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, UK

²Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Unit, Royal Brompton Hospital, London, UK

³Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Organ Imaging, Prince of Wales Hospital, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, China

⁴Department of Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital, University of Hong Kong, China

⁵Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital, University of Hong Kong, China

⁶National Heart Center, Singapore

⁷KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Singapore

⁸Department of Pediatric Hematology & Radiology, Ege University Hospital, Izmir, Turkey

⁹Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, USA

author email corresponding author email

Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance 2008, 10:11doi:10.1186/1532-429X-10-11

Published:	21 February 2008

Abstract

Background

Cardiac iron overload is the leading cause of death in thalassemia major and is usually assessed using myocardial T2* measurements. Recently a cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) breath-hold T2 sequence has been developed as a possible alternative. This cardiac T2 technique has good interstudy reproducibility, but its transferability to different centres has not yet been investigated.

Methods and Results

The breath-hold black blood spin echo T2 sequence was installed and validated on 1.5T Siemens MR scanners at 4 different centres across the world. Using this sequence, 5–10 thalassemia patients from each centre were scanned twice locally within a week for local interstudy reproducibility (n = 34) and all were rescanned within one month at the standardization centre in London (intersite reproducibility). The local interstudy reproducibility (coefficient of variance) and mean difference were 4.4% and -0.06 ms. The intersite reproducibility and mean difference between scanners were 5.2% and -0.07 ms.

Conclusion

The breath-hold myocardial T2 technique is transferable between Siemens scanners with good intersite and local interstudy reproducibility. This technique may have value in the diagnosis and management of patients with iron overload conditions such as thalassemia.