MR Imaging of Hypertrophy & Cardiac Recovery in the Mouse Aorta & Heart

Bernd Jung¹, Nadine Beetz², Michael Markl¹, Annette Merkle¹, Lutz Hein², Dominik von Elverfeldt¹

Cardiac loading can initiate hypertrophy. The factors identifying patients benefiting from a load removal are still not fully understood. Therefore, the mechanisms of remodeling after cardiac unloading are of high interest for therapeutic intervention. Mouse models of experimentally increased cardiac loading/unloading can provide an important tool to investigate cardiac remodeling and recovery. Small animal MRI has proven to be a useful tool for the evaluation of cardiac functional parameters. The aim of this work was to monitor changes in aortic diameter and regional cardiac function during remodeling and recovery after experimental myocardial loading by aortic stenosis using MRI and ultrasound.