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Abstract #3622

First-Pass Cardiac Perfusion Imaging of the Infarcted Rat Heart

Daniel James Stuckey1, Carolyn A. Carr1, Stephanie Meader1, Damian J. Tyler1, Kieran Clarke1

1Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxon, United Kingdom


We developed a first-pass cardiac perfusion imaging method which identified regions of perfusion deficit in the infarcted rat heart. Seven days after infarction, cine-MRI was combined with first-pass imaging, which acquired one image per heartbeat during Gd-DTPA bolus. Perfusion deficit at 7 days was larger in rats that went on to develop greater cardiac impairment by 42 days, and provided a more accuracy early indicator of the extent of myocardial infarction than ejection fraction. First-pass MRI will be useful for evaluation of rodent models of human disease and experimental therapies, including cytokine and stem-cell mediated angiogenesis in the infarcted heart.

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