Application value of cardiovascular MR T 1 mapping in patients recovered from COVID-19 / 中华放射学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the value of cardiovascular MR (CMR) T 1 mapping in evaluating myocardial injury in patients recovered from COVID-19. Methods:The clinical and image data of 15 patients with COVID-19 (9 with moderate clinical manifestation, 6 with severe clinical manifestation) who underwent CMR screening at 3 months after being discharged from the Second People′s Hospital of Fuyang City during May 2020 to June 2020 were prospective collected. Fifteen COVID-19 patients were selected as case group, and another 11 healthy volunteers were selected as control group. A standardized CMR protocol included cine, native and enhanced T 1 mapping, late gadolinium enhancement (LGE). Cardiac functional parameters, native T 1 value of left ventricular and extracellular volume fraction (ECV) were measured. One way ANOVA was used to assess the difference between CMR parameters among moderate and severe manifestation groups and control group, and LSD- t was used to assess the difference between the three groups. Results:LGE value was negative in all subjects. ECV values were higher in recovered COVID-19 patients with either moderate (27.9%±2.7%) or severe manifestation (30.0%±3.7%) than control group (23.2±1.9%) ( P<0.05); there was no significant difference of ECV values between recovered COVID-19 patients with moderate and severe manifestation ( P=0.100). There was no difference of native T 1 values and other functional and morphologic parameters of left ventricular and right ventricular among recovered COVID-19 patients with moderate and severe manifestation and control group ( P>0.05). Conclusion:CMR myocardial tissue ECV increase in patients who recovered from COVID-19, suggesting subclinical myocardial injury.