An investigation into potential gender-specific differences in myocardial triglyceride content assessed by 1H-Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy at 3Tesla

Abstract

Objective Over the past decade, myocardial triglyceride content has become an accepted biomarker for chronic metabolic and cardiac disease. The purpose of this study was to use proton (hydrogen 1)-magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) at 3Tesla (3 T) field strength to assess potential gender-related differences in myocardial triglyceride content in healthy individuals . Methods Cardiac MR imaging was performed to enable accurate voxel placement and obtain functional and morphological information. Double triggered (i.e., ECG and respiratory motion gating) 1H-MRS was used to quantify myocardial triglyceride levels for each gender. Two-sample t-test and Mann-Whitney U-test were used for statistical analyses. Results In total, 40 healthy volunteers (22 male, 18 female; aged >18 years and age matched) were included in the study. Median myocardial triglyceride content was 0.28% (interquartile range [IQR] 0.17–0.42%) in male and 0.24% (IQR 0.14–0.45%) in female participants, and no statistically significant difference was observed between the genders. Furthermore, no gender-specific difference in ejection fraction was observed, although on average, male participants presented with a higher mean ± SD left ventricular mass (136.3 ± 25.2 g) than female participants (103.9 ± 16.1 g). Conclusions The study showed that 1H-MRS is a capable, noninvasive tool for acquisition of myocardial triglyceride metabolites. Myocardial triglyceride concentration was shown to be unrelated to gender in this group of healthy volunteers.