Background:

T1mapping is a technique that improves tissue characterization by cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR), and there is growing evidence favoring its use as a tool for early diagnosis and stratification. We present the results of native myocardial T1 quantification in a 3.0 T field in healthy individuals, in order to provide local reference values.

Methods:

A total of 124 consecutive adults with normal studies, referred to our center for CMR, were included in the study. T1 relaxation time was measured in a midventricular short axis slice, analyzing age and sex dependance. For comparison, 27 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, 11 with dilated cardiomyopathy and 8 with cardiac amyloidosis were also included.

Results:

Mean global T1mapping of the 124 studies analyzed was 1220.7 ±21.2 msec, and rounding to unity, 1178-1263 msec (p5-p95) was considered as “normal range”. A slightly longer T1 time was observed in women and no differences were found with respect to age. Excellent reproducibility was obtained, evaluated by intraclass correlation coefficient (0.97) and BlandAltman plot. T1 mapping values were significantly higher in both groups of individuals with cardiomyopathy.

Conclusions:

We report normal values of native T1 mapping in a local healthy adult population. Times were slightly higher in women, a difference that was not considered clinically relevant. When comparing with individuals with hypertrophic or dilated cardiomyopathy, a very good discrimination was obtained between the 3 populations. The interobserver variability was very low.