Free-breathing T1ρ dispersion imaging for myocardial fibrosis without exogenous contrast agents

Motivation: LGE and ECV are standard cardiac MR (CMR) techniques for detecting focal and diffuse myocardial fibrosis, requiring gadolinium contrast agents. For patients with gadolinium contraindications, non-contrast CMR techniques are needed to detect myocardial fibrosis. Goal(s): To evaluate the performance of endogenous T1ρ dispersion imaging for myocardial fibrosis. Approach: A recently proposed free-breathing T1ρ dispersion imaging technique was employed to image patients with non-ischemic cardiomyopathies. The endogenous parameters, T1ρ, myocardial fibrosis index (mFI), and native T1 were evaluated against LGE and ECV. Results: T1ρ and mFI were elevated in the LGE region and mFI showed the best correlation with ECV among the tested parameters. Impact: T1ρ dispersion imaging is a promising CMR technique for detecting myocardial fibrosis without exogenous contrast agents.