Alessia Tognolini1, Wanda Marfori1,
Cesar Arellano1, Golnaz Heidari1, Christine Darwin2,
Yutaka Natsuaki1,3, Gerhard Laub1,3, Mayil Krishnam4,
Stefan Ruehm1
1Diagnostic Cardiovascular
Imaging, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, United States; 2Medicine, Endocrinology,
UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, United States; 3Siemens Medical Solution,
Los Angeles, CA, United States; 4Cardiovascular & Thoracic
Imaging, UCI, Irvine, CA, United States
Cardiovascular risk factors can lead to endothelial dysfunction, known precursor of atherosclerosis, which can manifest with impaired arterial vasodilation/paradoxical constriction in response to an appropriate stimulus. Cold pressor test (CPT) can be utilized to assess the endothelium dependent coronary vasomotor function. We utilized 3T cardiac perfusion MRI to detect changes in myocardial signal slope after CPT (immersion of the foot in ice water) in 10 diabetic patients and 10 healthy volunteers. Patients with diabetes showed stable/decreased perfusion after CPT vs. two-fold increase of perfusion in healthy control (p=0.0009). Perfusion MRI with CPT is a promising tool for early imaging of atherosclerosis.