Longitudinal Changes in the Myocardial T1 Relaxation Time, Extracellular Volume Fraction, and Left Ventricular Function in Asymptomatic Men

Figure 1. Flow chart depicting the inclusion of the study population. Asymptomatic subjects who underwent cardiac magnetic resonance imaging for screening at our institution were included. Subjects who underwent only one test without a follow-up examination (n = 2528), those whose examination lacked an optimal sequence for T1 mapping (n = 60), and women (n = 1) were excluded.

Figure 2. Short-axis slices at the mid-ventricle level of the pre-contrast and post-contrast reconstructed T1 maps acquired using the MOLLI technique. Regions of interest were manually drawn at the mid-ventricle level of the left ventricular myocardium (blue dotted line) and blood pools (red dotted line). (A) Before gadolinium contrast injection. (B) Fifteen min after gadolinium contrast injection.

Figure 3. Mean T1 mapping values at the initial and follow-up assessments in 50 asymptomatic men. There was no significant change in the T1 mapping values, including the native T1 values, post-contrast T1 values, and ECVFs during follow-up. ECVF, extracellular volume fraction.

Figure 4. Comparison of the T1 values and ECVFs between the short-term follow-up group and the long-term follow-up group. No significant differences are noted in these parameters between the two groups. Error bars represent 1 standard deviation.

Figure 5. Comparison of the T1 values and ECVFs between the lower-aged group and the higher-aged group. No significant differences are noted in these parameters between the two groups. Error bars represent 1 standard deviation.