Late Gadolinium Enhancement of Nonischemic Cardiomyopathy at 5.0 T versus 3.0 T: A Crossover Design Study

Purpose To compare the acquisition time, image quality, and late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) visualization and quantification on phase-sensitive inversion recovery (PSIR) images using 5.0-T versus 3.0-T cardiac MRI. Materials and Methods In this prospective crossover study, 49 participants (mean ± SD age, 43.7 years ± 13.1; 39 men) suspected or diagnosed with nonischemic cardiomyopathy were enrolled from April 2023 to March 2024 and randomly assigned to group 1 (5.0-T followed by 3.0-T LGE cardiac MRI) or group 2 (3.0-T followed by 5.0-T LGE cardiac MRI). PSIR images were acquired at spatial resolutions of 1.2, 0.9, and 1.6 mm. Image quality and LGE were qualitatively evaluated using a five-point Likert scale by two readers, and signal-to-noise ratio, contrast-to-noise ratio, and LGE mass were quantitatively assessed. Bland-Altman plots were used to evaluate interreader agreement. Results There was no evidence of a difference in the acquisition time for obtaining a single-layer PSIR image at 5.0 T compared with 3.0 T (