Moriel H. Vandsburger1, Robert L. Janiczek1, Brent A. French1,2, Craig H. Meyer1, Christopher M. Kramer2,3, Frederick H. Epstein1,2
1Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA; 2Radiology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA; 3Medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
Measurment of myocardial perfusion in mouse models of acute myocardial infarction (MI) by arterial spin labeling (ASL) has never been demonstrated. We developed a cardio-respiratory gated Look-Locker spiral ASL sequence which uses a fuzzy C-means (FCM) clustering algorithm to reconstruct ASL images and assign image inversion times (TIs). This reduced motion artifacts and improved quantification of perfusion. Mice were scanned at baseline (n=7) and one day after MI (n=6). Baseline perfusion of 3.5 0.3 (ml/gmin) rose after MI in the noninfarcted zone to 4.5 0.4 (ml/gmin) and dropped in the infarcted zone to 1.9 0.3 (ml/gmin).