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• Clinical Article •
Value of non-contrast cardiac magnetic resonance T1ρ mapping in assessing myocardial fibrosis in hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathy
XU Jingjing  ZHANG Nan  DU Fan  LU Hongfei  WANG Shiya  HUA Yiying  YUE Xiuzheng  ZENG Mengsu  JIN Hang 

Cite this article as: XU J J, ZHANG N, DU F, et al. Value of non-contrast cardiac magnetic resonance T1ρ mapping in assessing myocardial fibrosis in hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathy[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2025, 16(9): 74-81. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.09.012.


[Abstract] Objective To explore the value of non-contrast cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) T1ρ mapping in evaluating myocardial fibrosis in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM).Materials and Methods CMR images and clinical data of 63 patients clinically diagnosed with HCM and DCM in Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University from July 2023 to December 2023 were prospectively included. According to the manifestations of late gadolinium enhancement (LGE), the patients were divided into three groups: LGE (+), LGE (+-) and LGE (-) groups, they represent patients with obvious LGE areas, patients with suspicious LGE areas, and patients with no detected LGE areas in any myocardial segment respectively. At the same time, 20 healthy volunteers were included as the control group. The general information of the participants and the imaging data of CMR examinations were collected. The cardiac function indexes, native T1 and T1ρ values were compared between the patient group and the control group. Depending on whether the continuous variables conformed to normality, parametric tests (independent samples t-test) and non-parametric tests (Mann-Whitney test) were used for comparison respectively. In LGE (+) group, paired t-test or paired rank sum test was used to compare the non-LGE regions and LGE-positive regions of their own myocardium.In the patient and control groups, one-way ANOVA was used, and if there is a statistical difference (P < 0.05), post-hoc tests (such as Dunnett) were conducted for pairwise comparisons, or Kruskal-Wallis test was used, followed by Dunn's test to correct for multiple comparisons.Results The heart rate of HCM patients was lower than that of the control group (P = 0.021). Compared with the control group, the left ventricular cardiac output of HCM and DCM patients was lower (P = 0.006, P < 0.001), while the left ventricular mass increased (all P < 0.001). In the LGE (+) group, the T1ρ and native T1 values in the LGE-negative regions were (55 ± 3) ms and (1046 ± 30) ms (compared with the control group, P = 0.009, P = 0.014), respectively. The myocardial T1ρ and native T1 values in the LGE-positive regions of both HCM patients and DCM patients were significantly increased, and there were statistically significant differences in the T1ρ and native T1 values between these regions and the non-LGE regions of their own myocardium as well as the myocardium of the control group (all P < 0.001). In the LGE (+-) group, the overall myocardial T1ρ and native T1 values were (57 ± 3) ms and (1070 ± 40) ms (compared with the control group, P = 0.032, P = 0.007), respectively. Then, for the patients in the LGE (-) group, the overall myocardial native T1 value was (1040 ± 30) ms , and the T1ρ value was (57 ± 2) ms (compared with the control group, P = 0.667, P < 0.001). The measurement of myocardial T1ρ and T1 values showed good intra-observer (ICC = 0.93/0.99, all P < 0.001) and inter-observer (ICC = 0.88/0.98, all P < 0.001) agreement.Conclusions The T1ρ mapping technique is a reliable tool for quantitatively detecting myocardial fibrosis. It can be used for non-contrast evaluation of myocardial fibrosis in HCM and DCM. It demonstrates particular utility in patients with diffuse fibrosis and outperforms native T1 mapping in evaluating early-stage lesions within LGE-negative myocardial regions.
[Keywords] magnetic resonance imaging；cardiac magnetic resonance；T1ρ mapping；hypertrophic cardiomyopathy；dilated cardiomyopathy；myocardial fibrosis

XU Jingjing1, 2   ZHANG Nan2   DU Fan2   LU Hongfei2   WANG Shiya2   HUA Yiying2   YUE Xiuzheng3   ZENG Mengsu2   JIN Hang1, 2*  

1 Shanghai Institute of Medical Imaging, Shanghai 200032, China

2 Department of Radiology, Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China

3 Philips Health Technology (China) Co., Ltd, Beijing 100600, China

Corresponding author: JIN H, E-mail: jin.hang@zs-hospital.sh.cn

Conflicts of interest   None.

Received  2025-04-28
Accepted  2025-08-28
DOI: 10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.09.012
Cite this article as: XU J J, ZHANG N, DU F, et al. Value of non-contrast cardiac magnetic resonance T1ρ mapping in assessing myocardial fibrosis in hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathy[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2025, 16(9): 74-81. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.09.012.

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