Blood T1* correction increases accuracy of extracellular volume measurements using 3T cardiovascular magnetic resonance: Comparison of T1 and T1* maps

The goals were to compare the differences between ECV(L) (extracellular volume derived from myocardial T1 and blood T1), ECV(c) (combination of myocardial T1 and blood T1*), and ECVnL (derived from myocardium T1* and blood T1*), and to explore the diagnostic accuracy of these factors for discriminating between controls and patients. The Modified Look-Locker Inversion Recovery sequence was performed in 42 subjects to generate both T1 and T1* maps. Native and post-contrast T1 values for myocardium and blood pool were obtained, and ECVL, ECVc, and ECVnL were then calculated. The global ECVc values were smaller than the ECVL values (0.006, 2.11%, p < 0.001) and larger than the ECVnL values (0.06, 21.6%, p < 0.001) in all participants. The ECVc led to a 4–6% increase in the AUC value and a 24–32% reduction in the sample size to differentiate between the controls and other patients when compared with the ECVL. Blood T1* correction can improve the precision of blood T1 values and can consequently increase the accuracy of the extracellular volume fraction measurement. The ECVc can be used to improve diagnostic accuracy and reduce the sample size required for a clinical study.