Abstract #1768

Patients with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Have a Lower Left Ventricular Myocardial Perfusion Reserve on Cardiac MR Adenosine Stress Perfusion Imaging Compared to Age Matched Healthy Controls

Jan Skrok¹, Monda L. Shehata¹, Christopher Sibley², Thomas Goldstein³, Kyle McCommis³, Jie Zheng³, Joao A. Lima², David A. Bluemke⁴, Paul Hassoun⁵, Jens Vogel-Claussen¹

¹Department of Radiology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; ²Department of Cardiology, Johns Hopkins University, USA; ³Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St.Louis, MO, USA; ⁴Department of Radiology, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA; ⁵Department of Pulmonology, Johns Hopkins University, USA

Patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) are known to show cardiac remodeling. However, it is unknown whether myocardial blood flow under rest and adenosine-induced stress conditions is also affected. The purpose of our study was to compare left ventricular (LV) myocardial blood flow (MBF) and myocardial perfusion reserve (MPR) between patients with PAH and age matched healthy volunteers using adenosine stress 1st pass perfusion cardiac MRI. Results show that patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension have a globally reduced left ventricular myocardial perfusion reserve compared to normal age matched controls. These changes are likely caused by microvascular dysfunction in PAH patients.