fang liu1,2, Ben Waghorn1,2, Jimei Liu1, Tom C. - C. Hu1,2
1Small Animal Imaging, Department of Radiology, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA, USA; 2Nuclear and Radiological Engineering / Medical Physics Programs, George W. Woodruff School, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
A temporal manganese-enhanced MRI T1-mapping method has been implemented to monitor the remodeling process following myocardial infarction in the mouse heart. The study demonstrates that this T1-mapping method is sensitive to detect the uptake of manganese dynamically in the myocardial cells and that reduced Mn2+ uptake can be an indication of the viability of the injured myocardial cells. Similarly, the quantification of Mn2+ content enabled by this T1-mapping method can be applied to estimate the progression of myocardial infarction, which may be useful for potential therapeutic interventions.