Physics Just the Basics Series #12 - T1, T2, and ECV mapping - Translating Basics into Practice-Webinar

Video Transcription

Video Summary

The webinar introduced SCMR’s “Physics, Just the Basics” series and featured Kelvin Chow discussing myocardial T1, T2, and ECV mapping in cardiac MRI. He explained how mapping techniques translate physics into clinical practice, focusing on accuracy, precision, and especially reproducibility. The lecture reviewed major sequence families: MOLLI and related intermittent Look-Locker methods, versus SASHA and other independent saturation-recovery approaches. He also covered T2 mapping methods, including spin-echo, T2-prepared imaging, and their strengths and limitations.<br /><br />A major theme was that mapping values can be affected by confounders such as heart rate, off-resonance, flip angle/B1 variation, field of view, and motion correction errors. These factors can create apparent abnormalities that are not truly pathological. Chow emphasized checking source images, performing shimming, standardizing protocols, and using consistent analysis software. He also discussed ECV calculation, including hematocrit correction and synthetic hematocrit methods, and noted that pre- and post-contrast misalignment can strongly affect ECV results.<br /><br />In the Q&A, he recommended around 10 minutes after contrast for ECV imaging, suggested using both septal and global myocardial ROIs when appropriate, and stressed that reproducible protocols are key for longitudinal follow-up and clinical translation.

Keywords

cardiac MRI

myocardial mapping

T1 mapping

T2 mapping

ECV

MOLLI

SASHA

reproducibility

contrast imaging