Michael Schr1,2, AbdElmonem M. El-Sharkawy1,
Paul A. Bottomley1,3, Robert G. Weiss1,3
1Russel H. Morgan Department of
Radiology and Radiological Science, The Johns Hopkins University School of
Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States; 2Philips Healthcare,
Cleveland, OH, United States; 3Division of Cardiology, Department
of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD,
United States
A
triple repetition time saturation transfer method is applied to measure
pseudo-first-order rate-constant kf
of the creatine kinase reaction in the hearts of 16 patients with heart
failure and 9 healthy subjects for the first time at 3T. In heart failure, kf is reduced to 65% of the
normal value, in agreement with prior reports at 1.5T using a different
technique. Furthermore, the intrinsic 31P T1 of phosphocreatine
did not differ significantly between these subjects, possibly permitting
elimination of one protocol step. The resulting two repetition time
saturation transfer method, TwiST, yields the same cardiac kf measures in less time.