Abstract #0700

Improved Arterial Spin Labeling After Myocardial Infarction in Mice Using Respiratory and Cardiac Gated Look-Locker Imaging with Fuzzy C-Means Clustering for T1 Estimation

Moriel H. Vandsburger¹, Robert L. Janiczek¹, Brent A. French^1,2, Craig H. Meyer¹, Christopher M. Kramer^2,3, Frederick H. Epstein^1,2

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).