Characterization of Iron Load in Rat Myocardium at 7T by R2 Map

Gyula Kotek¹, Matteo Milanesi², Gavin Houston³, Piotr Wielopolski¹, Gabriella N. Doeswijk¹, Gabriel P. Krestin¹, Monique Bernsen¹

R2 and R2* mapping techniques have been used to index iron overload either from endogenous sources (e.g. myocardial infarct) or to track exogenously injected cells labeled with paramagnetic iron oxide [ref]. The advantages of high field imaging, namely improved SNR and sensitivity to iron load, are offset by the considerable challenges of rodent cardiac imaging at 7T such as increased macroscopic field inhomogeneities and short R-R intervals (~180ms). In this work we assess the robustness of R2 measurement in healthy & infarcted myocardium, as well as in the presence of SPIO labeled cells.