Diffuse Myocardial Fibrosis at Cardiac MRI in Young Adults Born Prematurely: A Cross-sectional Cohort Study

Christopher J François; Gregory P Barton; Philip A Corrado; Aimee T Broman; Naomi C Chesler; Marlowe W Eldridge; Oliver Wieben; Kara N Goss

doi:10.1148/ryct.210224

Diffuse Myocardial Fibrosis at Cardiac MRI in Young Adults Born Prematurely: A Cross-sectional Cohort Study

Radiol Cardiothorac Imaging. 2022 Jun 9;4(3):e210224. doi: 10.1148/ryct.210224. eCollection 2022 Jun.

Authors

Christopher J François¹, Gregory P Barton¹, Philip A Corrado¹, Aimee T Broman¹, Naomi C Chesler¹, Marlowe W Eldridge¹, Oliver Wieben¹, Kara N Goss¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic, 200 First St SW, Rochester, MN 55905 (C.J.F.); Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Tex (G.P.B., K.N.G.); Departments of Medical Physics (G.P.B., P.A.C., O.W.), Radiology (O.W.), Biostatistics and Medical Informatics (A.T.B.), Pediatrics (M.W.E., K.N.G.), and Medicine (K.N.G.), School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wis; and Edwards Lifesciences Foundation Cardiovascular Innovation and Research Center, University of California, Irvine, Calif (N.C.C.).

Abstract

Purpose: To measure native T1 values, a marker of diffuse fibrosis, by using cardiac MRI (CMR) in young adults born prematurely.

Materials and methods: This secondary analysis of a prospective cohort study included young adults born moderately to extremely preterm and age-matched, term-born participants. CMR was performed with a 3.0-T imager that included cine imaging for the quantification of left ventricular (LV) and right ventricular (RV) volumes and function and native saturation recovery T1 mapping for the assessment of diffuse myocardial fibrosis. Values between preterm and term were compared by using the Student t test. Associations between T1 values and other variables were analyzed by using linear regression and multivariate regression.

Results: Of the 50 young-adult participants, 32 were born preterm (mean age, 25.8 years ± 4.2 [SD]; 23 women) and 18 were born at term (mean age, 26.2 years ± 5.4; 10 women). Native T1 values were significantly higher in participants born preterm than in participants born at term (1477 msec ± 77 vs 1423 msec ± 71, respectively; unadjusted P = .0019). Native T1 values appeared to be positively associated with indexed LV end-diastolic and end-systolic volumes (β = 2.1, standard error = 0.7 and β = 3.8, standard error = 1.2, respectively), the RV end-diastolic volume index (β = 1.3, standard error = 0.6), and the LV mass index (β = 2.5, standard error = 0.9). Higher T1 values may be associated with reduced cardiac systolic strain measures and diastolic strain measures. Five-minute Apgar scores were inversely associated with native T1 values.

Conclusion: Young adults born moderately to extremely preterm exhibited significantly higher native T1 values than age-matched, term-born young adults.Keywords: MRI, Cardiac, Heart, Left Ventricle, CardiomyopathiesClinical trial registration no. NCT03245723Published under a CC BY 4.0 license Supplemental material is available for this article.

Keywords: Cardiac; Cardiomyopathies; Heart; Left Ventricle; MRI.