Shane A. Wells1, Karl K. Vigen1, Jeffrey S. Nackos1, Scott B. Reeder1, 2, Diego Hernando1
1Department of Radiology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States; 2Department of Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
Excess myocardial iron can result in sudden death or heart failure, the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in transfusion-dependent thalassemia patients. Accurate and reproducible, non-invasive quantification of myocardial iron is important because effective chelation therapy can be initiated and cardiomyopathy averted. R2* mapping is very sensitive to the presence of tissue iron; however, in the myocardium, its broad use is limited due to macroscopic magnetic field inhomogeneities caused by susceptibility effects, most profound at the myocardial-air interface. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate the feasibility of a background magnetic field correction technique for more consistent R2* mapping.