Jia Zhong1,
2, David Schwartzman3, Claudiu Schirda4, Anthony
Balducci5, Brooke Helfer5, Amy Wesa5, Eric
T. Ahrens1, 2
1Department
of Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United
States; 2The Pittsburgh NMR Center for Biomedical Research,
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; 3Cardiology,
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; 4Radiology,
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; 5Celsense
Inc, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
Myocardial infarction (MI) remains a major public health problem worldwide. Leaving untreated, MI can result in permanent left ventricle scarring that may eventually lead to heart failure. Inflammation is a key early response to the ischemic insult, whose location represents a promising spatial cue that can be used to target for therapeutic biological material delivery. In this study, we demonstrated the feasibility of using intravenously infused perfluorocarbon emulsion and 19F MRI detection to visualize myocardial inflammation and macrophage burden in a porcine model of MI. The study was performed with using a 3 Tesla clinical scanner and clinically relevant scan times.
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