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T2 versus T2*: competitive or complementary sequences?

Nature Reviews Cardiology volume 12, page 198 (2015)Cite this article

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We would like to thank Dr Kidambi and Dr Plein for their thoughtful comments (Detection of intramyocardial haemorrhage by MRI—no single rule. Nat. Rev. Cardiol. doi:10.1038/nrcardio.2014.188-c1)1 on our Review (Intramyocardial haemorrhage after acute myocardial infarction. Nat. Rev. Cardiol. doi:10.1038/nrcardio.2014.188)2 regarding the use of T2 and T2* imaging for the detection of intramyocardial haemorrhage (IMH). We fully agree with the author's statement that “at the present time, advice to dismiss T2 imaging might be premature and not supported by current evidence.” We certainly do not advise that clinicians dismiss T2 imaging. In our Review we advocate the combined use of T2 and T2* with late gadolinium enhancement to enable the specific delineation of oedema, IMH, infarct tissue, and microvascular injury.2

The sentence in our Review that the authors are referring to is our own opinion rather than a recommendation and is phrased as such. This opinion is formed by the fact that T2* imaging seems to be less influenced by oedema compared with T2, as shown in the study by Kali and colleagues.3 Notably, Kidambi et al. also found that, when T2* imaging indicated IMH, contrast was higher than when using T2 and susceptibility weighted imaging.4

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References

  1. Kidambi, A. & Plein, S. Detection of intramyocardial haemorrhage by MRI—no single rule. Nat. Rev. Cardiol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2014.188-c1.

  2. Betgem, R. P. et al. Intramyocardial haemorrhage after acute myocardial infarction. Nat. Rev. Cardiol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2014.188.

  3. Kali, A., Tang, R. L., Kumar, A., Min, J. K. & Dharmakumar, R. Detection of acute reperfusion myocardial hemorrhage with cardiac MR imaging: T2 versus T2. Radiology 269, 387–395 (2013).

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  4. Kidambi, A. et al. Susceptibility-weighted cardiovascular magnetic resonance in comparison to T2 and T2 star imaging for detection of intramyocardial hemorrhage following acute myocardial infarction at 3 Tesla. J. Cardiovasc. Magn. Reson. 16, 86 (2014).

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  5. Payne, A. R. et al. Bright-blood T2-weighted MRI has higher diagnostic accuracy than dark-blood short tau inversion recovery MRI for detection of acute myocardial infarction and for assessment of the ischemic area at risk and myocardial salvage. Circ. Cardiovasc. Imaging 4, 210–219 (2011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiology, Institute for Cardiovascular Research, VU University Medical Center, De Boelelaan 1117, Amsterdam, 1081 HV, Netherlands

    Ryanne P. Betgem, Guus A. de Waard, Robin Nijveldt, Aernout M. Beek & Niels van Royen

  2. Cardiovascular Institute, Hospital Clinico San Carlos/Complutense University, Calle Profesor Martín Lagos S/N, Madrid, 28040, Spain

    Javier Escaned

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  1. Ryanne P. Betgem
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Correspondence to Niels van Royen.

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Betgem, R., de Waard, G., Nijveldt, R. et al. T2 versus T2*: competitive or complementary sequences?. Nat Rev Cardiol 12, 198 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2014.188-c2

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