Advantages and challenges of cardiac magnetic resonance spectroscopy at 3Tesla - applications to studies of cardiac steatosis in obesity and type 2 diabetes

Background The risk of heart failure in obesity and type 2 diabetes is greater than can be accounted for by hypertension and coronary artery disease. Rodent studies indicate that in obesity and type 2 diabetes, lipid over-storage in cardiac myocytes produces lipotoxic intermediates leading to heart failure. Cardiac steatosis was previously demonstrated in explanted hearts of patients with end-stage nonischemic cardiomyopathy. We demonstrated that cardiac steatosis precedes the onset of cardiomyopathy in individuals with impaired glucose tolerance or in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus using 1.5 T MR system. To perform cardiac MR Spectroscopy studies using 3 Tesla MRI system we had to overcome the particular challenges at high magnetic field.