Splenic T1-mapping: a novel quantitative method for assessing adenosine stress adequacy for cardiovascular magnetic resonance

BACKGROUND: Perfusion cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) performed with inadequate adenosine stress leads to false-negative results and suboptimal clinical management. The recently proposed marker of adequate stress, the “splenic switch-off” sign, detects splenic blood flow attenuation during stress perfusion (spleen appears dark), but can only be assessed after gadolinium first-pass, when it is too late to optimize the stress response. Reduction in splenic blood volume during adenosine stress is expected to shorten native splenic T1, which may predict splenic switch-off without the need for gadolinium. METHODS: Two-hundred and twelve subjects underwent adenosine stress CMR: 1.5 T (n = 104; 75 patients, 29 healthy controls); 3 T (n = 108; 86 patients, 22 healthy controls). Native T1(spleen) was assessed using heart-rate-independent ShMOLLI prototype sequence at rest and during adenosine stress (140 μg/kg/min, 4 min, IV) in 3 short-axis slices (basal, mid-ventricular, apical). This was compared with changes in peak splenic perfusion signal intensity (ΔSI(spleen)) and the “splenic switch-off” sign on conventional stress/rest gadolinium perfusion imaging. T1(spleen) values were obtained blinded to perfusion ΔSI(spleen), both were derived using regions of interest carefully placed to avoid artefacts and partial-volume effects. RESULTS: Normal resting splenic T1 values were 1102 ± 66 ms (1.5 T) and 1352 ± 114 ms (3 T), slightly higher than in patients (1083 ± 59 ms, p = 0.04; 1295 ± 105 ms, p = 0.01, respectively). T1(spleen) decreased significantly during adenosine stress (mean ΔT1(spleen) ~ −40 ms), independent of field strength, age, gender, and cardiovascular diseases. While ΔT1(spleen) correlated strongly with ΔSI(spleen) (rho = 0.70, p < 0.0001); neither indices showed significant correlations with conventional hemodynamic markers (rate pressure product) during stress. By ROC analysis, a ΔT1(spleen) threshold of ≥ −30 ms during stress predicted the “splenic switch-off” sign (AUC 0.90, p < 0.0001) with sensitivity (90%), specificity (88%), accuracy (90%), PPV (98%), NPV (42%). CONCLUSIONS: Adenosine stress and rest splenic T1-mapping is a novel method for assessing stress responses, independent of conventional hemodynamic parameters. It enables prediction of the visual “splenic switch-off” sign without the need for gadolinium, and correlates well to changes in splenic signal intensity during stress/rest perfusion imaging. ΔT1(spleen) holds promise to facilitate optimization of stress responses before gadolinium first-pass perfusion CMR. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12968-016-0318-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.