To study myocardial perfusion reserve and myocellular metabolic alterations indicated by triglyceride content as possible causes of diastolic dysfunction in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, preserved systolic function, and without clinically evident coronary artery disease.

Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (n = 42) underwent cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) for quantification of 1) myocardial contractility by strain‐encoded MR (SENC); 2) myocardial triglyceride content by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (¹H‐MRS); and 3) myocardial perfusion reserve during pharmacologic hyperemia. Age‐matched healthy volunteers (n = 16) also underwent CMR to acquire normal values for myocardial strain and perfusion reserve.

Stress CMR procedures were successfully performed in all subjects, and no regional inducible perfusion defects were observed in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. Diastolic strain rate and myocardial perfusion reserve were significantly impaired in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus compared to control subjects (P < 0.001 for both). Interestingly, impaired diastolic function in type 2 diabetes mellitus was not associated with impaired myocardial perfusion reserve (r = 0.12, P = NS). Conversely a significant association was observed between diastolic dysfunction and myocardial triglyceride content (r = −0.71, P < 0.001), which proved to be independent of age, gender, diabetes duration, blood pressure, and fasting blood glucose.

Myocardial steatosis may represent an early marker of diabetic heart disease, triggering subclinical myocardial dysfunction irrespective of myocardial perfusion reserve. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2012;35:804–811. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.