Purpose: To demonstrate the feasibility of using an inversion recovery pulse sequence and to define the optimal inversion time (TI) to assess myocardial infarction in mice by late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) MRI at 9.4T, and to obtain the maximal contrast between the infarcted and the viable myocardium.
Methods: MRI was performed at 9.4T in mice, two days after induction of myocardial infarction (n = 4). For cardiovascular MR imaging, a segmented magnetization-prepared fast low angle shot (MP-FLASH) sequence was used with varied TIs ranging from 40 to 420 ms following administration of gadolinium-DTPA at 0.6 mmol/kg. Contrast-to-noise (CNR) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) were measured and compared for each myocardial region of interest (ROI).
Results: The optimal TI, which corresponded to a minimum SNR in the normal myocardium, was 268 ms +/- 27.3. The SNR in the viable myocardium was significantly different from that found in the infarcted myocardium (17.2 +/- 2.4 vs 82.1 +/- 10.8; p = 0.006) leading to a maximal relative SI (Signal Intensity) between those two areas (344.9 +/- 60.4).
Conclusion: Despite the rapid heart rate in mice, our study demonstrates that LGE MRI can be performed at 9.4T using a protocol similar to the one used for clinical MR diagnosis of myocardial infarction.