Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Unit, Royal Brompton Hospital, London, UK.
J Magn Reson Imaging. 2013 Feb;37(2):479-83. doi: 10.1002/jmri.23780. Epub 2012 Aug 23.
To propose an automated truncation method for myocardial T2* measurement and evaluate this method on a large population of patients with iron loading in the heart and scanned at multiple magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) centers.
A total of 550 thalassemia patients were scanned at 20 international centers using a variety of MR scanners (Siemens, Philips, or GE). A single mid-ventricular short axis slice was imaged. All patient data were anonymized before the T2* were measured by expert observers using standard techniques. These same datasets were then retrospectively processed using the proposed automated truncation method by another independent observer and the resulting T2* measurements were compared with those of expert readings.
The T2* measurements using the automated method showed good agreement with those measured by expert observers using standard techniques (P = 0.95) with a low coefficient of variation (1.6%).
This study demonstrates feasibility and good reproducibility of a new automated truncation method for myocardial T2* measurement. This approach simplifies the overall analysis and can be easily incorporated into T2* analysis software to facilitate further development of a fully automated myocardial tissue iron quantification.
提出一种心肌 T2*测量的自动截断方法，并在多个磁共振成像（MRI）中心对大量铁负荷患者进行评估。
共有 550 名地中海贫血患者在 20 个国际中心使用各种 MRI 扫描仪（西门子、飞利浦或通用电气）进行扫描。对单个中部心室短轴切片进行成像。在专家观察者使用标准技术测量 T2之前，对所有患者数据进行了匿名处理。然后，由另一位独立观察者使用建议的自动截断方法对相同的数据集进行回顾性处理，并将得到的 T2测量值与专家读数进行比较。
使用自动方法测量的 T2与专家观察者使用标准技术测量的 T2具有良好的一致性（P=0.95），变异系数较低（1.6%）。
本研究证明了一种新的心肌 T2测量自动截断方法的可行性和良好的可重复性。这种方法简化了整体分析，并且可以很容易地集成到 T2分析软件中，以促进全自动心肌组织铁定量的进一步发展。
