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

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.