Eissa Aguor1, Fatih Arslan1,
Cees W. A. van De Kolk1, Marcel G. J. Nederhoff1,
Pieter A. F. M Doevendans1, Cees J. A. van Echteld1,
Gerard Pasterkamp1, Gustav J. Strijkers2
1Department of Cardiology,
University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands; 2Biomedical
NMR, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of
Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands
Ischemic injury may lead to a progressive decline in heart performance and heart failure. Noninvasive techniques to characterize the myocardium during infarct development are essential to assess efficacy of novel therapeutics. The aim of this study was to explore the utility of quantitative T2* mapping as a noninvasive technique to characterize the myocardium in the acute and chronic phases following ischemia/reperfusion injury in the mouse. Quantitative T2* values dynamically decreased during infarct development. In the chronic phase the infarction was better distinguished on the T2* maps than by late-gadolinium-enhancement. Therefore, T2* may enable distinction between acute and chronic myocardial infarctions.