Whole Mount Heart Histology: A New Gold Standard for Myocardial Damage Validation in Experimental Cardiac MRI Studies?

Yuesong Yang¹, Kela Liu¹, Dan Wang¹, Mihaela Pop¹, Jay Detsky¹, Yingli Lu¹, Alexander J. Dick¹, Martin J. Yaffe¹, Graham A. Wright¹

Triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) stain is commonly used for the validation of myocardial damage in experimental cardiac MRI studies using various animal species such as mice, dogs and pigs. However, subtle myocardial damage, border zone or infarct heterogeneity associated with myocardial infarction (MI) is difficult to recognize on TTC stains. In this study, we investigated the feasibility of whole-mount heart histology that preserved the 3D morphology with a digital display at the microscopic level as a new alternative in the validation of myocardial damage in a porcine model of MI in experimental cardiac late-enhancement (LE) MRI studies.