Bestemmelse af T2*-relaksationstiden i myokardiet, med magnetisk resonans, kan indikere patologisk jernophobning hos børn med β-thalassaemia major

Lau Brix, Erik Lundorf, Niels Clausen, Taigang He

    Research output: Contribution to conferencePosterResearch

    Abstract

    DETERMINATION OF THE MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING PARAMETER, T2*, CAN INDICATE PATHOLOGICAL IRON OVERLOAD IN THE MYOCARDIUM IN CHILDREN WITH β-THALASSAEMIA MAJOR

    Background: Thalassaemia is a hereditary disease and has an occurrence of up to 10% percent in certain geographical areas. β-thalassaemia major leads to severe anemia and will untreated lead to an early death. Cardiac complications are reported to cause 71% of the deaths in patients with thalassemia major and 50% of the patients die before the age of 35. However, iron-induced cardiomyopathy is both treatable and reversible if intensive chelation treatment is instituted in time.

    Purpose: for the first time, in Denmark, to implement a T2*-protocol for determination of the iron level in the myocardium and to develop post processing software for data analyses.

    Methods: The applied MRI-technique was an ECG-triggered, multi echo TFE, Black-Blood, T2*-sequence with a spatial resolution of 1.6x3.6x10.0mm3, a matrix size of 256x128 and an acquisition time of 16 s. Eight phases (2.0-18.0ms) was acquired during a single breath hold in an end diastolic, mid ventricular, short axis slice. Data analyses were carried out in MatLab® by plotting the signal intensities measured in the inter-ventricular septum.


    Results: Three β-thalassaemia major patients (age 3-12) participated in the project. The analyses yielded T2*-values of 35.9ms±4.4ms. Because T2*-values above 20 ms is considered to be non-pathological none of the patients were found to be iron overloaded in the heart.

    Conclusion: Determination of T2* is the non-invasive and reproducible method for determining the iron level in the myocardium in patients suffering from β-thalassaemia major. The applied MRI technique should therefore be a natural supplement to the other diagnostic tools used for diagnosing patients with β-thalassaemia major.

    Original languageDanish
    Publication date2008
    Publication statusPublished - 2008
    Event26. danske medicotekniske landsmøde - Brædstrup, Denmark
    Duration: 17 Sept 200818 Sept 2008
    Conference number: 26

    Conference

    Conference26. danske medicotekniske landsmøde
    Number26
    Country/TerritoryDenmark
    CityBrædstrup
    Period17/09/200818/09/2008

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