Detecting Myocardial Ischemia at Rest with Cardiac Phase-Resolved BOLD MRI: Early Findings

Sotirios Athanasios Tsaftaris^1,2, Veronica Rundell², Xiangzhi Zhou², Ying Liu², Richard Tang², Debiao Li², Rohan Dharmakumar²

Vasodilatory stress has been used to probe myocardial oxygenation changes due to coronary artery stenosis on the basis of BOLD MRI. However, since vasodilation is typically achieved with provocative stress, approaches that can identify the presence of stenosis on the basis of microvascular alterations at rest are highly desirable. In this work, using controlled animals studies and theoretical simulations we demonstrate that cardiac phase-resolved BOLD MRI may be used to identify ischemic territories at rest.