Study population

Part 1/One healthy male volunteer (age 43) underwent 10 consecutive CMR studies over a period of 5 days, i.e., two CMR studies per day. Although per day, the CMR studies were subsequently performed, for the second CMR study the volunteer was re-installed and a new exam was started obtaining new localizers and a new determination of cardiac axes was performed. No Gadolinium-based contrast agent was administered.

Part 2/From the UZ Leuven patient CMR database (University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium) we randomly selected 10 patients (7 male) with suspected cardiomyopathy but normal CMR findings (normal group). Mean age 37 ± 11 years; mean LVEF 57 ± 5%. Each patient underwent a complete CMR study with intravenous administration of Gadolinium-based contrast agent (Gadovist, Bayer).

Part 3/Ten patients (6 male) with known or suspected ischemic or non-ischemic myocardial disease were prospectively enrolled (patient group). Each patient was scanned twice with an interval of 30 min between the two CMR studies after re-installing the patient on the scanner. Gadolinium-based contrast agent (Gadovist, Bayer) was injected once, i.e., in the first exam.

Renal function (eGFR) was checked in all subjects prior to contrast agent administration. Exclusion criteria were standard contra-indications to MRI.