Ferumoxytol Dose Optimization for 3D Whole-Heart Congenital Heart Disease Imaging: Comparison Across Three Dosing Regimens.

Motivation: Ferumoxytol is becoming more widely used as a contrast agent, yet the optimum dose for use in cardiac MRI remains unknown. Goal(s): To evaluate whether reducing the contrast dose to 2 or 1mg/kg will affect the image quality and diagnostic accuracy. Approach: Forty-five patients with complex congenital heart disease had a 3D-IR-SSFP sequence performed at two different ferumoxytol doses. Twenty were in the ferumoxytol 1 vs. 2 mg/kg group, and twenty-five in the 2 vs. 3 mg/kg group. Results: There was no significant difference in the RCA image quality score, RCA length, diagnostic accuracy nor CNR with the use of the reduced dosing. Impact: Using reduced ferumoxytol dosing (1 or 2mg/kg), may lead to comparable image quality and diagnostic performance. The use of 2mg/kg lowers blood-T1 time to the extent that systolic imaging should not be precluded with the current 3D-IR Whole Heart Sequences.