Magnetic resonance as an imaging modality provides an excellent soft tissue 
differentiation, which is an ideal choice for cardiac imaging. Cardiac magnetic 
resonance (CMR) allows myocardial tissue characterization, as well as 
comprehensive evaluation of the structures. Although late gadolinium enhancement 
after injection of the gadolinium extracellular contrast agent has further 
extended our ability to characterize the myocardial tissue, it also has 
limitations in the quantification of enhanced myocardial tissue pathology, and 
the detection of diffuse myocardial disease, which is not easily recognized by 
enhancement contrast. Recently, the remarkable advances in CMR technique, such 
as T1 mapping, which can quantitatively evaluate myocardial status, showed 
potentials to overcome limitations of existing CMR sequences and to expand the 
application of CMR. This article will review the technical and clinical points 
to be considered in the practical use of pre- and post-contrast T1 mapping.