Advanced Cardiac MR Imaging for Myocardial Characterization and Quantification: T1 Mapping

Abstract

Magnetic resonance as an imaging modality provides an excellent soft tissue differentiation, which is an ideal choice for cardiac imaging. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) allows myocardial tissue characterization, as well as comprehensive evaluation of the structures. Al-though late gadolinium enhancement after injection of the gadolinium extracellular contrast agent has further extended our ability to characterize the myocardial tissue, it also has limitations in the quantification of enhanced myocardial tissue pathology, and the detection of diffuse myocardial disease, which is not easily recognized by enhancement contrast. Recently, the remarkable advances in CMR tech-nique, such as T1 mapping, which can quantitatively evaluate myocardial status, showed potentials to overcome limitations of existing CMR sequences and to expand the application of CMR. This article will review the technical and clinical points to be considered in the prac-tical use of pre- and post-contrast T1 mapping. (Korean Circ J 2013;43:1-6)