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Final Program


Program-At-A-Glance

Rapid Fire Session

Session: Rapid Fire Session 4: Tissue Characterization/Standardization (Monitor 7)

Normal Ranges for Myocardial T1 in 3.0T GE MR System: A Preliminary Study

Friday, February 6, 2026
4:06 PM - 4:13 PM  
Location: Galapagos / Aruba / Ilhabela (2nd Lower Level)
Background: Quantitative longitudinal magnetic relaxation time (T1) of myocardium is useful in clinical diagnosis [1-4]. However, there are only few published normal ranges for native myocardial T1 for 3.0T GE MR systems [5]. This study aims to establish normal ranges for myocardial T1 and evaluate regional variability of sex, age, body weight, and heart rate.

Methods: Steady-state free precession cine and a modified Look–Locker inversion recovery (MOLLI) sequence, with one 5-(3s)-3 scheme, in end-diastole. We collected 34 data retrospectively (from July 2024 to June 2025, GE HealthCare 3.0T SIGNA Premier at the University of Hong Kong). All normal data were selected manually from experienced radiologists. All the myocardial T1-values among 16 AHA segmentations were analyzed using cvi42 software. In the statistical processes, Shapiro-Wilk parametric hypothesis test was used to test the normality of the data, Wilcoxon Rank sum test and two-sample t-test were used to test the difference between T1-values of male and female groups, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to calculate the relationships between T1 and physiological parameters.

Results: Our result of 34 normal subjects show an average global native T1 value of 1270±57 ms, with frmale’s values being statistically higher than male (1287±61 ms vs 1249±50 ms, respectively; p=0.05), and the T1-values of 16 AHA locations were listed in the (Table 1). Myocardial T1 of different AHA locations show significant interaction (p < 0.05) using ANOVA (Figure 1). In the post-hoc analysis, myocardial T1 of AHA locations showed significant difference with each other. Compared with the male group, mid anteroseptal, mid inferoseptal, and apical septal locations of the female group showed significant higher myocardial T1 (Figure 2). Moreover, in the group-leveled results, no significant correlation between T1 and ages in both male and female groups; apical locations showed significant negative correlation between T1 of body weight and heart rate in rest; in the female group, T1-values of mid and apical locations showed significant negative correlation with body weight and heart rate in rest, especially the apical locations. Compared with the global T1-values reported in the previous literature, our result showed relatively higher values, which might be due to differences in hardware and scan parameter settings. Moreover, our results showed that the T1-values of the female group were significantly higher than those of the male group in some regions, which is consistent with the previous literature.

Conclusion: In this preliminary study, we created one preliminary reference database of sex-specific segmental reference values for GE 3.0T MR system. Myocardial T1 showed sexual difference in 3 septal locations. There is no significant correlation between T1 and age, but body weight and heart rate could influence the individual myocardial T1 in both male and female groups.

Table 1. The T1-values of 16 AHA locations.

 

AHA Location

T1-value

All (N=34)

Male (N=15)

Female (N=19)

Basal

1

1228 (53)

1229 (52)

1226 (56)

2

1276 (50)

1291 (36)

1258 (60)

3

1263 (50)

1276 (48)

1247 (49)

4

1257 (81)

1260 (93)

1253 (67)

5

1235 (80)

1253 (91)

1212 (59)

6

1242 (72)

1258 (75)

1222 (65)

Mid

7

1258 (86)

1270 (103)

1242 (57)

8

1295 (55)

1316 (59)

1267 (37)

9

1283 (80)

1306 (88)

1255 (58)

10

1239 (89)

1245 (92)

1231 (88)

11

1243 (79)

1253 (94)

1231 (54)

12

1275 (80)

1297 (88)

1247 (61)

Apical

13

1317 (87)

1343 (95)

1285 (65)

14

1336 (84)

1362 (89)

1304 (67)

15

1251 (91)

1277 (83)

1219 (93)

16

1323 (101)

1352 (106)

1286 (82)

Global

1270 (57)

1249 (50)

1287 (61)

 Figure 1. The myocardial T1-values of 16 AHA locations. The ANOVA results showed significant interaction among AHA locations (p < 0.05)
Figure 2. The comparison of myocardial T1 between male and female groups. Mid anteroseptal, mid inferoseptal, and apical septal locations of the female group showed significant higher myocardial T1-values than that of the male group (*: p<0.05; **: p<0.01)