System and method for differentiation of normal myocardium from diffuse disease using T1 mapping in non-ischemic cardiomyopathies and others

1. A magnetic resonance system comprising:

a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus; and

one or more processors programmed to:

receive one or more images of a heart of a patient acquired by the magnetic resonance imaging apparatus;

generate a T1 map from the one or more images;

define a region of interest within the one or more images;

determine the average T1 value within the region of interest;

compare the average T1 value within the region of interest to a cut-off T1 value; and

determine a hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) or non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) diagnosis of the region of interest from the comparison;

wherein the one or more images of the heart of the patient are acquired only without contrast agent and the generated T1 map is a native T1 map.

2. The magnetic resonance system according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further programmed to perform:

a motion correction of the T1 mapping; and

a heart rate correction of the T1 values.

3. The magnetic resonance system according to claim 1 , wherein the T1 mapping utilizes a Modified Look-Locker Inversion imaging sequence.

4. The magnetic resonance system according to claim 1 , wherein the heart rate correction includes:

checking for a correlation between heart rate of the patient and T1 values; and

normalizing the T1 values using the correlation.

5. The magnetic resonance system according to claim 1 , wherein the HCM or non-ischemic DCM diagnosis for an average T1 value above the cut-off T1 value is disease and the HCM or non-ischemic DCM diagnosis for an average T1 value below the cut-off T1 value is healthy.

6. The magnetic resonance system according to claim 1 , wherein the cut-off T1 value is 1184 ms.

7. The magnetic resonance system according to claim 1 , wherein the region of interest is the myocardium or part of the myocardium.

8. A magnetic resonance system, comprising:

an imaging apparatus which acquires one or more images of a patient without contrast agent present;

a T1 mapping processor which generates a native T1 map from the one or more images; and

a T1 value processor which defines a region of interest within the one or more images, determines the average T1 value within the region of interest, compares the average T1 value within the region of interest to a cut-off T1 value, and provides a diagnosis based on the comparison;

wherein a diagnosis for an average T1 value below the cut-off T1 value is healthy.

9. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the T1 mapping processor further corrects for at least one of motion of the T1 map and T1 values for heart rate.

10. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the T1 mapping utilizes a Modified Look-Locker Inversion imaging sequence.

11. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the heart rate correction includes:

checking for a correlation between heart rate of the patient and T1 values; and

normalizing the T1 values using the correlation.

12. The magnetic resonance system according to claim 8 , wherein the region of interest is the myocardium or part of the myocardium.

13. A method for differentiation of normal myocardium from diffuse disease using T1 mapping, the method comprising, with at least one electronic processor:

acquiring one or more magnetic resonance signals from a patient without contrast agent using a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus;

reconstructing the received MR signals into one or more images of a patient;

generating a native T1 map without contrast from a contrast agent from the one or more images;

defining a region of interest within the one or more images;

determining the average T1 value within the region of interest;

comparing the average T1 value within the region of interest to a cut-off T1 value; and

determining a diagnosis of the region of interest from the comparison, wherein the diagnosis for an average T1 value above the cut-off T1 value is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) or non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) disease and the diagnosis for an average T1 value below the cut-off T1 value is healthy.

14. The method according to claim 13 , further including, with the at least one electronic processor:

correcting for motion the T1 mapping; and

correcting for heart rate of the T1 values.

15. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the T1 mapping utilizes a Modified Look-Locker Inversion imaging sequence.

16. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the region of interest is the myocardium or part of the myocardium.