Detecting Myocardial Ischemia at Rest with Cardiac Phase-resolved Blood Oxygen Level-dependent Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance

Background: Fast noninvasive identification of ischemic territories at rest (before tissue-specific changes) and assessment of functional status can be valuable in the management of severe coronary artery disease. This study investigated the use of cardiac phase-resolved blood oxygen level-dependent (CP-BOLD) cardiovascular magnetic resonance in detecting myocardial ischemia at rest secondary to severe coronary artery stenosis.

Methods And Results: CP-BOLD, standard cine, and T2-weighted images were acquired in canines (n=11) at baseline and within 20 minutes of ischemia induction (severe left anterior descending stenosis) at rest. After 3 hours of ischemia, left anterior descending stenosis was removed, and T2-weighted and late-gadolinium-enhancement images were acquired. From standard cine and CP-BOLD images, end-systolic and end-diastolic myocardium was segmented. Affected and remote sections of the myocardium were identified from postreperfusion late-gadolinium-enhancement images. Systolic-to-diastolic ratio (S/D), quotient of mean end-systolic and end-diastolic signal intensities (on CP-BOLD and standard cine), was computed for affected and remote segments at baseline and ischemia. Ejection fraction and segmental wall thickening were derived from CP-BOLD images at baseline and ischemia. On CP-BOLD images, S/D was >1 (remote and affected territories) at baseline; S/D was diminished only in affected territories during ischemia, and the findings were statistically significant (ANOVA, post hoc P<0.01). The dependence of S/D on ischemia was not observed in standard cine images. Computer simulations confirmed the experimental findings. Receiver-operating characteristic analysis showed that S/D identifies affected regions with performance (area under the curve, 0.87) similar to ejection fraction (area under the curve, 0.89) and segmental wall thickening (area under the curve, 0.75).

Conclusions: Preclinical studies and computer simulations showed that CP-BOLD cardiovascular magnetic resonance could be useful in detecting myocardial ischemia at rest. Patient studies are needed for clinical translation.