Feasibility of quantitative analysis of regional left ventricular function in the post-infarct mouse by magnetic resonance imaging with retrospective gating.

We aimed testing feasibility of identification of regional left ventricular (LV) endocardial motion abnormalities in mice undergoing coronary ligation (MI), using cine magnetic resonance with retrospective gating and computation of regional fractional area change (RFAC), by comparison with histological "gold standard" evaluation. ROC analysis determined the optimal RFAC cut-off values for detecting regional ischemic injury. This approach was tested on 18 MI and 10 sham mice. Automated regional LV motion interpretation and bull's eye display allowed non-invasive localization of the induced infarction. Possible applications to future studies assessing the effectiveness of pharmacological treatments or regenerative medicine are expected.