Benjamin Waghorn1,2, Nathan Yanasak1, Tom C.-C. Hu1,2
1Small Animal Imaging, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA, USA; 2NRE and Medical Physics Programs, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
Intracellular calcium (Ca2+) overloading that occurs via the NCX during myocardial ischemia-reperfusion is known to exacerbate injuries. This study demonstrates that pharmacokinetic modeling can be applied to T1 mapping manganese-enhanced MRI in a murine model to estimate the rates of myocardial Mn2+ influx and efflux following infusion of MnCl2. A two compartment model provided a good approximation for the Mn2+ transfer between blood and heart compartments. This model could possibly by used to predict changes in myocardial Ca2+ handling following myocardial infarction as a pre-clinical rodent model and to potentially monitor disease progression.