Abstract #0577

in vivo Fluorine-19 MRI at 3 Tesla to Visualize Myocardial Infarction Inflammation in a Porcine Model

Jia Zhong¹,², David Schwartzman³, Claudiu Schirda⁴, Anthony Balducci⁵, Brooke Helfer⁵, Amy Wesa⁵, Eric T. Ahrens¹,²

¹Department of Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; ²The Pittsburgh NMR Center for Biomedical Research, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; ³Cardiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; ⁴Radiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; ⁵Celsense Inc, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Myocardial infarction (MI) remains a major public health problem worldwide. Leaving untreated, MI can result in permanent left ventricle scarring that may eventually lead to heart failure. Inflammation is a key early response to the ischemic insult, whose location represents a promising spatial cue that can be used to target for therapeutic biological material delivery. In this study, we demonstrated the feasibility of using intravenously infused perfluorocarbon emulsion and 19F MRI detection to visualize myocardial inflammation and macrophage burden in a porcine model of MI. The study was performed with using a 3 Tesla clinical scanner and clinically relevant scan times.