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Erik B Schelbert, Christopher A Miller, Myocardial tissue characteristics undoubtedly differ by gender but not age, European Heart Journal - Cardiovascular Imaging, Volume 19, Issue 6, June 2018, Pages 611–612, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jey057
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This editorial refers to ‘Myocardial native T1 and extracellular volume with healthy ageing and gender’, by S. Rosmini et al., pp. 615--621.
Myocardial tissue characterization with native T1 and extracellular volume
Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) applications transcend traditional assessments of the left ventricle related to morphology and function, such as mass, volumes, strain, and ejection fraction, all of which inherently lack aetiological specificity. Newer capabilities such as CMR with T1 parametric mapping permit characterization of innate myocardial tissue characteristics related to its composition, distinct abnormalities of which may implicate specific disease pathways. When combined with the clinical context, CMR tissue characterization emerges as a powerful non-invasive diagnostic tool. Two quantitative parameters attract particular attention: (i) native T1, the exponentiated time constant describing the recovery of longitudinal magnetization (spin–lattice relaxation) and (ii) extracellular volume (ECV), a measure of the volume percent of the myocardial interstitium which includes the intramyocardial vasculature. Both parameters can be encoded into every pixel and colour coded on an image to yield parametric maps for quick visual appraisal of the spatial distribution of the parameter.