Gadovist

Clinically active JIA patients underwent an axial wrist T1-weighted MRI sequence with fat saturation (TR 400–750 ms, TE 10 ms; slice thickness 4 mm; field of view 150 × 150 mm, matrix 384 × 384) using a 1.0 T MRI scanner (Panorama HFO, Philips Healthcare), after intravenous contrast agent administration (Gadovist, Bayer Schering Pharma, Berlin, Germany, 1.0 mmol gadolinium/mL, dose 0.1 mmol/kg).
Children from the control group initially underwent MR enterography using a 1.5 T MRI scanner (MAGNETOM Avanto™, Siemens Medical Systems) after intravenous contrast administration (Gadovist, Bayer Schering Pharma, Berlin, Germany, 1.0 mmol gadolinium/mL, dose 0.1 mmol/kg). Following a change of position for correct placement of the wrist coil and without repeated intravenous contrast agent administration, an axial contrast-enhanced MRI sequence with fat saturation (TR 400–750 ms, TE 10 ms; slice thickness 4 mm; field of view 150 × 150 mm, matrix 384 × 384) was obtained from the wrist. Precautionary measures were made to ensure minimal time interval between intravenous contrast injection and image acquisition.

Part 1/One healthy male volunteer (age 43) underwent 10 consecutive CMR studies over a period of 5 days, i.e., two CMR studies per day. Although per day, the CMR studies were subsequently performed, for the second CMR study the volunteer was re-installed and a new exam was started obtaining new localizers and a new determination of cardiac axes was performed. No Gadolinium-based contrast agent was administered.
Part 2/From the UZ Leuven patient CMR database (University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium) we randomly selected 10 patients (7 male) with suspected cardiomyopathy but normal CMR findings (normal group). Mean age 37 ± 11 years; mean LVEF 57 ± 5%. Each patient underwent a complete CMR study with intravenous administration of Gadolinium-based contrast agent (Gadovist, Bayer).
Part 3/Ten patients (6 male) with known or suspected ischemic or non-ischemic myocardial disease were prospectively enrolled (patient group). Each patient was scanned twice with an interval of 30 min between the two CMR studies after re-installing the patient on the scanner. Gadolinium-based contrast agent (Gadovist, Bayer) was injected once, i.e., in the first exam.
Renal function (eGFR) was checked in all subjects prior to contrast agent administration. Exclusion criteria were standard contra-indications to MRI.

All patients were examined on a 3-T MRI scanner (Biograph mMR MR-PET, Siemens Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany) using a head-neck coil. The MR sequences comprised an axial T2-weighted fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) sequence as an anatomical reference (repetition time 9000 ms, echo time 94 ms, inversion time 2500 ms, slice thickness 3 mm, matrix size 207 × 320, field of view 189 × 220 mm²). For DSC-MRI, a pre-bolus of contrast agent was applied (0.025 mmol/kg gadobutrol (Gadovist, Bayer Healthcare, Leverkusen, Germany)). Subsequently, a single-shot T2*-weighted echo-planar imaging sequence was performed during the first pass of a contrast agent bolus of 0.1 mmol/kg of gadobutrol (Gadovist, Bayer Healthcare, Leverkusen, Germany; injection rate 3 ml/s). The repetition time was 1130 ms, the echo time was 31 ms, the flip angle was 60°, the slice thickness was 4 mm, the matrix size was 128 × 128, and the field of view was 230 × 230 mm².