Background: The aim of our study was to investigate the relationship between the cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR)-derived native T1 relaxation time and myocardial extracellular volume (ECV) fraction and the extent of diffuse myocardial fibrosis (DMF) on targeted myocardial left ventricular (LV) biopsy.
Methods and results: The study population consisted of 40 patients (age 63±8 years, 65% male) undergoing valve and/or ascending aorta surgery for severe aortic stenosis (77.5%), root dilatation (7.5%) or valve regurgitation (15%). The T1 relaxation time was assessed in the basal interventricular septum pre- and 10-min post-contrast administration using the modified Look-Locker Inversion recovery sequence prior to surgery. LV myocardial biopsy specimen was obtained during surgery from the basal interventricular septal segment matched with the T1 mapping assessment. The percentage of myocardial collagen was quantified using picrosirius red staining. The average percentage of myocardial collagen was 22.0±14.8%. Both native T1 relaxation time with cutoff value ≥1,010 ms (sensitivity=90%, specificity=73%, area under the curve=0.82) and ECV with cutoff value ≥0.32 (sensitivity=80%, specificity=90%, area under the curve=0.85) showed high accuracy to identify severe (>30%) DMF. The native T1 relaxation time showed significant correlation with LV mass (P<0.01).
Conclusions: Native T1 relaxation time and ECV at 10 min after contrast administration are accurate markers of DMF. (Circ J 2016; 80: 1202-1209).