T1T2 Mapping and Texture Analysis of Cine and T2-weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging to Detect Myocardial Tissue Changes Associated with Chronic Kidney Disease

Abstract Myocardial tissue changes associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD) may lead to heart failure, serious ventricular arrhythmia, and sudden cardiac death. Here, we sought to determine usefulness of T1T2 mapping and texture analysis of T2-weighted short inversion time inversion recovery (STIR) and cine imaging to detect myocardial changes associated with CKD. We examined 34 patients with CKD and 10 controls using a 1.5 T system. T1 and T2 values of the septal myocardium were significantly greater in patients than in controls (P = 0.021 for T1 and P < 0.01 for T2). The open-access texture analysis software, including features reduction methods, selected one particular feature for T2-weighted STIR and another for cine imaging: vertical fraction for STIR and horizontal short-run emphasis for cine imaging, which were significantly lower in the patients with CKD than in the controls (P < 0.01 for both). Texture analysis was not significantly better than T1T2 mapping in detecting the myocardial tissue changes, whereas STIR suffered from image artifacts in 9 patients. In conclusion, additional T1T2 mapping or postprocessing texture analysis may be feasible for detection of myocardial tissue changes associated with CKD.