Assessment of Feasibility and Interscan Variability of Short-time Cardiac MRI for Cardiotoxicity Evaluation in Breast Cancer

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the feasibility and interscan variability of short -time cardiac MRI protocol after chemotherapy in individuals with breast cancer. Materials and Methods: A total of 13 healthy female controls (mean age, 52.4 years +/- 13.2 [SD]) and 85 female participants with cancer (mean age, 51.8 years +/- 9.9) undergoing chemotherapy prospectively underwent routine breast MRI and short -time cardiac MRI using a 3-T scanner with peripheral pulse gating in the prone position. Interscan, intercoil, and interobserver reproducibility variability of native T1 and extracellular volume (ECV), as well as ventricular functional parameters, were measured using the correlation coefficient (ICC), standard error of measurement (SEM), or coefficient of variation (CoV). Results: Left ventricular functional parameters had excellent interscan reproducibility (ICC >= 0.80). Left ventricular ejection fraction showed low interscan variability in control and chemotherapy participants (SEM, 2.0 and 1.2; CoV, 3.1 and 1.9, respectively). T1 showed excellent interscan (ICC, 0.75) and intercoil (ICC, 0.81) reproducibility in the control group and good interscan reproducibility (ICC, 0.72 and 0.73, respectively) in the participants undergoing immediate and remote chemotherapy. Interscan reproducibility for ECV was excellent in the control group and in the remote chemotherapy group (ICC, 0.93 and 0.88, respectively) and the immediate chemotherapy group (ICC, 0.52). In the regional analysis, interscan repeatability and variability of native T1 and were superior in the anteroseptum or inferoseptum than in other segments in the immediate chemotherapy group. Native T1 and had good to excellent interobserver agreement across all groups. Conclusion: Short -time cardiac MRI showed excellent results for interscan, intercoil, and interobserver reproducibility and variability ventricular functional or tissue characterization parameters, suggesting that this modality is feasible for routine surveillance of cardiotoxicity evaluation in individuals with breast cancer.