Coronary Microvascular Dysfunction and Diffuse Myocardial Fibrosis in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Using Quantitative Perfusion MRI

Background: Imaging techniques that quantitatively and automatically measure changes in the myocardial microcirculation in patients with diabetes are lacking. Purpose: To detect diabetic myocardial microvascular complications using a novel automatic quantitative perfusion MRI technique, and to explore the relationship between myocardial microcirculation dysfunction and fibrosis. Study Type: Prospective. Subjects: 101 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) (53 without and 48 with complications), 20 healthy volunteers. Field Strength/Sequence: 3.0T; modified Look-Locker inversion-recovery sequence; saturation recovery sequence and dual-bolus technique; segmented fast low-angle shot sequence. Assessment: All participants underwent MRI to determine the rest myocardial blood flow (MBF), stress MBF, myocardial perfusion reserve (MPR), and extracellular volume (ECV), which represents the extent of myocardial fibrosis. Statistical Tests: Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, Shapiro–Wilk test, Kruskal–Wallis H test, Mann–Whitney U test, chi-square test, Spearman correlation coefficient, multivariable linear regression analysis. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The rest MBF was not significantly different between the T2DM without complications group (1.1, IQR: 0.9–1.3) and the control group (1.1, 1.0–1.3) (P = 1.000), but it was significantly lower in the T2DM with complications group (0.8, 0.6–1.0) than in both other groups. The stress MBF and MPR were significantly lower in the T2DM without complications group (1.9, 1.5–2.3, and 1.7, 1.4–2.1, respectively) than in the control group (3.0, 2.6–3.5, and 2.7, 2.4–3.1, respectively), and were also significantly lower in the T2DM with complications group (1.1, 0.9–1.4, and 1.4, 1.2–1.8, respectively) than in the T2DM without complications group. A decrease in MBF and MPR were significantly associated with an increase in the ECV. Data Conclusion: Quantitative perfusion MRI can evaluate myocardial microcirculation dysfunction. In T2DM, there was a significant decrease in both MBF and MPR compared to healthy controls, with the decrease being significantly different between T2DM with and without complications groups. The decrease of MBF was significantly associated with the development of myocardial fibrosis, as determined by ECV. Level of Evidence: 2. Technical Efficacy: Stage 3. © 2024 The Authors. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.