Daniel James Stuckey1, Carolyn A. Carr1,
Stephanie Meader1, Damian J. Tyler1, Kieran Clarke1
1Department of Physiology, Anatomy and
Genetics,
We
developed a first-pass cardiac perfusion imaging method which identified
regions of perfusion deficit in the infarcted rat heart. Seven days after
infarction, cine-MRI was combined with first-pass imaging, which acquired one
image per heartbeat during Gd-DTPA bolus. Perfusion deficit at 7 days was
larger in rats that went on to develop greater cardiac impairment by 42 days,
and provided a more accuracy early indicator of the extent of myocardial
infarction than ejection fraction. First-pass MRI will be useful for
evaluation of rodent models of human disease and experimental therapies,
including cytokine and stem-cell mediated angiogenesis in the infarcted
heart.