Publications

BACKGROUND: Human ventricular tachycardia (VT) after myocardial infarction usually occurs because of subendocardial reentrant circuits originating in scar tissue that borders surviving myocardial bundles. Several preclinical large animal models have been used to further study postinfarct reentrant VT, but with varied experimental methodologies and limited evaluation of the underlying substrate or induced arrhythmia mechanism. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to develop and characterize a swine model of scar-related reentrant VT. METHODS: Thirty-five Yorkshire swine underwent 180-minute occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery. Thirty-one animals (89%) survived the 6-8-week survival period. These animals underwent cardiac magnetic resonance imaging followed by electrophysiology study, detailed electroanatomic mapping, and histopathological analysis. RESULTS: Left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction measured using CMR imaging was 36% ± 6.6% with anteroseptal wall motion abnormality and late gadolinium enhancement across 12.5% ± 4.1% of the LV surface area. Low voltage measured using endocardial electroanatomic mapping encompassed 11.1% ± 3.5% of the LV surface area (bipolar voltage ≤1.5 mV) with anterior, anteroseptal, and anterolateral involvement. Reentrant circuits mapped were largely determined by functional rather than fix anatomical barriers, consistent with "pseudo-block" due to anisotropic conduction. Sustained monomorphic VT was induced in 28 of 31 swine (90%) (67 VTs; 2.4 ± 1.1; range 1-4) and characterized as reentry. VT circuits were subendocardial, with an arrhythmogenic substrate characterized by transmural anterior scar with varying degrees of fibrosis and myocardial fiber disarray on the septal and lateral borders. CONCLUSION: This is a well-characterized swine model of scar-related subendocardial reentrant VT. This model can serve as the basis for further investigation in the physiology and therapeutics of humanlike postinfarction reentrant VT.

PURPOSE: To develop a heart-rate independent breath-held joint T1 -T2 mapping sequence for accurate simultaneous estimation of coregistered myocardial T1 and T2 maps. METHODS: A novel preparation scheme combining both a saturation pulse and T2 -preparation in a single R-R interval is introduced. The time between these two pulses, as well as the duration of the T2 -preparation is varied in each heartbeat, acquiring images with different T1 and T2 weightings, and no magnetization dependence on previous images. Inherently coregistered T1 and T2 maps are calculated from these images. Phantom imaging is performed to compare the proposed maps with spin echo references. In vivo imaging is performed in ten subjects, comparing the accuracy and precision of the proposed technique to existing myocardial T1 and T2 mapping sequences of the same duration. RESULTS: Phantom experiments show that the proposed technique provides accurate quantification of T1 and T2 values over a wide-range (T1 : 260 ms to 1460 ms, T2 : 40 ms to 200 ms). In vivo imaging shows that the proposed sequence quantifies T1 and T2 values similar to a saturation-based T1 mapping and a conventional breath-hold T2 mapping sequence, respectively. CONCLUSION: The proposed sequence allows joint estimation of accurate and coregistered quantitative myocardial T1 and T2 maps in a single breath-hold. Magn Reson Med 76:888-896, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Diffuse myocardial fibrosis is involved in the pathology of nonischemic cardiomyopathy (NIC). Recently, the application of native (noncontrast) myocardial T1 measurement has been proposed as a method for characterizing diffuse interstitial fibrosis. To determine the association of native T1 with myocardial structure and function, we prospectively studied 39 patients with NIC (defined as left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) ≤ 50% without cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) evidence of previous infarction) and 27 subjects with normal LVEF without known overt cardiovascular disease. T1, T2, and extracellular volume fraction (ECV) were determined over 16 segments across the base, mid, and apical left ventricular (LV). NIC participants (57 ± 15 years) were predominantly men (74%), with a mean LVEF 34 ± 10%. Subjects with NIC had a greater native T1 (1,131 ± 51 vs 1,069 ± 29 ms; p <0.0001), a greater ECV (0.28 ± 0.04 vs 0.25 ± 0.02, p = 0.002), and a longer myocardial T2 (52 ± 8 vs 47 ± 5 ms; p = 0.02). After multivariate adjustment, a lower global native T1 time in NIC was associated with a greater LVEF (β = -0.59, p = 0.0003), greater right ventricular ejection fraction (β = -0.47, p = 0.006), and smaller left atrial volume index (β = 0.51, p = 0.001). The regional distribution of native myocardial T1 was similar in patients with and without NIC. In NIC, native myocardial T1 is elevated in all myocardial segments, suggesting a global (not regional) abnormality of myocardial tissue composition. In conclusion, native T1 may represent a rapid, noncontrast alternative to ECV for delineating myocardial tissue remodeling in NIC.