Mahon L. Maguire1,
Kiterie M. Faller1, Debra Medway1, Victoria Thornton1,
Craig A. Lygate1, Andrew M. Blamire2, Stefan Neubauer1,
Jurgen E. Schneider1
1Dept.
Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; 2Newcastle
Magnetic Resonance Centre, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United
Kingdom
Measurement of myocardial sodium levels can provide insight into electrophysiological disruption and tissue injury. We present absolute quantitation of tissue sodium concentrations in vivo in control and acutely infarcted mouse hearts. The combination of acquisition weighted chemical shift imaging (CSI) and an actively decoupled volume transmit resonator with small surface receive coil allowed the acquisition of 23Na images with high spatial resolution. B1 corrections were applied to compensate inhomogeneities in both transmit and receive coil profiles. Acute myocardial infarction resulted in elevated tissue sodium in infarcted myocardium relative to both remote myocardium and myocardium in control mice.