Reproducibility of Cardiac MRI Spectroscopy
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Validation of 31P (and 1-H) Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (P-MRS ? H-MRS); A pilot study assessing acute and medium term variability / reproducibility.
IRAS ID
145566
Contact name
Matthias Schmitt
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University Hospital of South Manchester
Research summary
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a disease of the heart (cardiac) muscle which is passed on through families through a faulty gene. About 1 in 500 people in the UK has the condition. In HCM, heart muscle becomes excessively thick. Instead of being arranged in an organised pattern, the heart muscle cells in HCM are arranged in disorganised layers, and scar tissue builds up between the heart cells. The way cells work, perform chemical reactions and use energy, is called cell metabolism. Recent studies have shown that in HCM, cell metabolism is different and inefficient.
Cardiac magnetic resonance spectroscopy is a test we can do to investigate cell metabolism. This is performed using a special MRI scanner, which uses magnetic and radio waves and does not involve radiation. Unlike ordinary MRI scans, this method does not take pictures of the heart, instead creating measurements and graphs of the chemicals involved in cell metabolism. The scan takes about 30minutes.
Our aim is to set up and fine-tune a ‘cardiac protocol’ for our spectroscopy scanner. A protocol is a list of settings and instructions we give to the scanner so that it performs the same tasks each time. This will firstly show that the way perform the scan, i.e. the instructions we give to the scanner, works, and secondly, will give us a protocol that we can pass on to other cardiac MRI units.
We will be repeating the scans on volunteers, firstly on the same day, and then at 3 months. This will be to see how much, if any, difference there is after a ‘re-test’, which will prove the reliability of our results.
Comparing healthy volunteers to patients with HCM will also show that our scanning protocol has the capability to correctly tell the difference between healthy and non-healthy hearts.
We hope to use this protocol in future studies.REC name
North West - Greater Manchester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/NW/0060
Date of REC Opinion
3 Mar 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion