A Combined Method for the Determination of Myocardial Perfusion in Experimental Animals Using Microspheres and CMR

A convenient method is introduced for myocardial perfusion research by combining multi-slice short-axis cine cardiovascular magnetic resonance (MSA-CMR) and colored microspheres (CM). In canine control-ischemia-reperfusion (n = 11), Cardiac output (CO) was measured us-ing MSA-CMR (COMSA), Phase Contrast CMR (PC-CMR, COPC) and CM (from reference blood samples, COμ) in 3 experimental periods per animal. COμ significantly and systematically over-estimated COMSA (median deviation: 291 mL/min, p< 0.01), while there was excellent agreement between PC-CMR and MSA-CMR without significant over- or underestimation (median deviation: −14 ml/min, p = NS). In quantitative myocardial perfusion assay by CM, CMR should be used instead of reference blood sampling. This should improve the accuracy of absolute regional perfusion measurement