Myocardial Oxygenation: Supply Versus Demand Under physiologic conditions, myocardial blood flow (MBF), myocardial oxygen consumption (MVO 2 ), and myocardial mechanics are intimately related. Therefore it is not surprising that the key disease processes involving the heart manifest from imbalances…
Respiration has been shown to be an important factor influencing the quality of cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) images. In addition to cardiac motion, which can be addressed reasonably well by electrocardiographic (ECG) triggering, respiratory motion moves the position and distorts…
The idea of mapping measurements of blood flow onto a magnetic resonance (MR) image was first discussed in an article by Singer in 1978. The methods that followed could generally be categorized into time-of-flight (TOF) or phase shift types and…
The physiologic basis for and the general principles of myocardial perfusion cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) are covered in detail in other chapters. The key challenge of first-pass dynamic contrast-enhanced acquisition is to capture data with high temporal and spatial resolution…
Introduction The concept of injecting a tracer into the blood stream and detecting its transit and distribution in the heart muscle for the assessment of myocardial perfusion is well established in nuclear cardiology and cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR). Both exogenous,…
Although currently not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for cardiac imaging, the vast majority of cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) studies use a gadolinium-based contrast agent. The CMR contrast agent typically makes diseased tissue appear brighter (or…
Many disease processes alter the local molecular environment of the myocardium, and consequently the longitudinal (T1) and transverse (T2) relaxation times can change. While such changes may be observed directly as changes in image contrast, the tissue processes may be…
Introduction This introduction to the basic principles of cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) describes the concepts of magnetization, T1, T2, T2*, and image formation, and describes some common CMR pulse sequences and parameters. These basic ideas will require some time and…
Cardiac malformations are the most common congenital anomalies. The reported incidence of congenital heart disease (CHD) varies widely because of differences in counting minor lesions. The incidence of moderate and severe forms of CHD is about 6/1000 live births. This…
Introduction Primary cardiac problems can influence the function of other organ systems. Similarly, diseases or abnormalities in other organ systems can result in secondary cardiac dysfunction. Ascertaining the afflicting primary abnormality can pose a diagnostic dilemma. To illustrate, in a…