Shreyas S. Vasanawala1, Huanzhou Yu2,
Ann Shimakawa2, Michael Jeng3, Jean H. Brittain4
1Department of Radiology, Stanford
University, Stanford, CA, United States; 2Applied Science
Laboratory, GE Healthcare, Menlo Park, CA, United States; 3Department
of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Stanford University,
Stanford, CA, United States; 4Applied Science Laboratory, GE
Healthcare, Madison, WI, United States
Patients
who receive chronic red blood cell transfusion therapy are at risk for iron
overload if not receiving appropriate iron chelation. Quantification of iron deposition for
therapeutic decision-making is vital.
We aim to evaluate a method of automated T2* mapping with a weighted
least squares algorithm in pediatric patients with suspected hepatic iron
deposition and to compare it with a conventional T2* mapping method. Twenty
three patients ages 5 to 17 years were recruited. Good correlation was obtained
between the methods with R2 of 0.97. It is noted that the simple exponential
fitting technique likely over-estimates T2* at short T2*.