title: Cine and tagged cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging in normal rat at 1.5 T: a rest and stress study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The purpose of this study was to measure regional contractile function in the normal rat using cardiac cine and tagged cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) during incremental low doses of dobutamine and at rest.
  
  
  METHODS
  Five rats were investigated for invasive left ventricle pressure measurements and five additional rats were imaged on a clinical 1.5 T MR system using a cine sequence (11-20 phases per cycle, 0.28/0.28/2 mm) and a C-SPAMM tag sequence (18-25 phases per cycle, 0.63/1.79/3 mm, tag spacing 1.25 mm). For each slice, wall thickening (WT) and circumferential strains (CS) were calculated at rest and at stress (2.5, 5 and 10 microg/min/kg of dobutamine).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Good cine and tagged images were obtained in all the rats even at higher heart rate (300-440 bpm). Ejection fraction and left ventricular (LV) end-systolic volume showed significant changes after each dobutamine perfusion dose (p < 0.001). Tagged CMR had the capacity to resolve the CS transmural gradient and showed a significant increase of both WT and CS at stress compared to rest. Intra and interobserver study showed less variability for the tagged technique. In rats in which a LV catheter was placed, dobutamine produced a significant increase of heart rate, LV dP/dtmax and LV pressure significantly already at the lowest infusion dose.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Robust cardiac cine and tagging CMR measurements can be obtained in the rat under incremental dobutamine stress using a clinical 1.5 T MR scanner.
authors.affiliation: Radiology Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva and Geneva University Hospital, CH-1211 Geneva 14, Switzerland. jlucdaire@yahoo.fr
authors.forename: Jean-Luc
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Daire
authors.forename: Jean-Pascal
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Jacob
authors.forename: Jean-Noel
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Hyacinthe
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Croisille
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Montet-Abou
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Richter
authors.forename: Diomidis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Botsikas
authors.forename: Matthieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lepetit-Coiffé
authors.forename: Denis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Morel
authors.forename: Jean-Paul
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Vallée
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002316:Cardiotonic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D004280:Dobutamine / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005080:Exercise Test; D019028:Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Cine; D009200:Myocardial Contraction / Q000187:drug effects*; D015588:Observer Variation; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013318:Stroke Volume / Q000187:drug effects; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left / Q000187:drug effects*; D017725:Ventricular Pressure / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D002316:Cardiotonic Agents; D004280:Dobutamine