Relationship between cardiac mechanical properties and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging at rest in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia survivors

The characterization of cardiac mechanical properties may contribute to better understanding of doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity. Our study aims to investigate the relationship between cardiac mechanical properties, T1 and T2 relaxation times and partition coefficient. Fifty childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia survivors underwent a cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) at rest on a 3T MRI system and included a standard ECG-gated 3(3)3(3)5 MOLLI sequence for T1 mapping and an ECG-gated T2-prepared TrueFISP sequence for T2 mapping. Partition coefficient, ejection fraction, end-diastolic volume (EDV) and end-systolic volume (ESV) were calculated. CircAdapt model was used to study cardiac mechanical performance (left ventricle stiffness (LVS), contractility (LVC) and pressure (Pmin and Pmax), cardiac work efficiency (CWE) and ventricular arterial coupling). In the whole cohort, our results showed that LVC (R² = 69.2%, r = 0.83), Pmin (R² = 62.9%, r = 0.79) and Pmax can be predicted by significant CMR parameters, while T1 (R² = 23.2%, r = 0.48) and partition coefficient (R² = 13.8%, r = 0.37) can be predicted by significant cardiac mechanical properties. In SR group LVS (R² = 94.8%, r = 0.97), LVC (R² = 93.7%, r = 0.96) and Pmin (R² = 90.6%, r = 0.95) can be predicted by significant cardiac mechanical properties, while in HR + DEX group CWE (R² = 49.8%, r = 0.70) can be predicted by significant cardiac mechanical properties. Partition coefficient (R² = 72.6%, r = 0.85) can be predicted by significant CMR parameters in SR group. Early characterization of cardiac mechanical properties from CMR parameters has the potential to early detect doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity.