Background Diagnostic studies using dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) MRI perfusion imaging typically evaluate perfusion in terms of the myocardial perfusion reserve (MPR), which is the ratio of stress to rest myocardial blood flow (MBF) measurements. The aim of this study was to establish whether or not, in the case of absolute MBF quantitation, the MPR exhibits a diagnostic advantage over the s...

Background Late failure of systemic right and single ventricles is difficult to predict. Approximately 1/3 of subjects with congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries (ccTGA) have congestive heart failure by the fifth decade and 2/3 of subjects with ccTGA and significant associated defects have congestive heart failure by the age of 45 years. Perfusion defects have been identifi...

When acute myocardial infarction occurs in patients with hypertension and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), the incidence of sudden cardiac death increases markedly. Possible explanations include increased size of the occluded vascular bed secondary to more extensive atherosclerotic coronary vascular disease in the presence of hypertension, decreased coronary reserve secondary to LVH, and int...

Background Animal models are important to develop our understanding of the pathophysiology of cardiovascular disease and for the development of new therapies. While coronary autoregulation maintains resting myocardial blood flow (MBF) constant over a wide range of pathological conditions, MBF reserve during hyperaemic stress is impaired in several common disease processes. First pass contrast-e...

M yocardial perfusion occurs primarily in diastole since systolic contraction transiently impedes coronary blood flow especially to the subendocardium. Thus, myocardial bridges replicate the normal microvascular physiology of high diastolic and low systolic flow, albeit at the level of the epicardial coronary artery. Because marked myocardial bridges are not common during invasive angiography, ...

INTRODUCTION Myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS) is an established non-invasive technique for the diagnosis and management of patients with suspected or known coronary artery disease. Because of the wealth of prognostic data, MPS single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) is the most commonly used functional test to detect inducible ischaemia. However, the increasing availability of...

BACKGROUND Angina is common in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and is associated with abnormal myocardial perfusion. Wave intensity analysis improves the understanding of the mechanics of myocardial ischemia. OBJECTIVES Wave intensity analysis was used to describe the mechanisms underlying perfusion abnormalities in patients with HCM. METHODS Simultaneous pressure and flow were measured i...

Background Arterial spin labeling of the heart has been shown to estimate myocardial perfusion and perfusion reserve at a single short-axis slice for coronary artery disease assessment. However, current spatial labeling methods suffer from transit delay effects when imaging is extended to more than a single slice. Velocity selective (VS) labeling is a promising alternative that does not suffer ...