title: Cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging of isolated perfused pig hearts in a 3T clinical MR scanner.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  An isolated perfused pig heart model has recently been proposed for the development of novel methods in standard clinical magnetic resonance (MR) scanners. The original set-up required the electrical system to be within the safe part of the MR-room, which introduced significant background noise. The purpose of the current work was to refine the system to overcome this limitation so that all electrical parts are completely outside the scanner room.
  
  
  METHODS
  Four pig hearts were explanted under terminal anaesthesia from large white cross landrace pigs. All hearts underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) scanning in the MR part of a novel combined 3T MR and x-ray fluoroscopy (XMR) suite. CMR scanning included real-time k-t SENSE functional imaging, k-t SENSE accelerated perfusion imaging and late gadolinium enhancement imaging. Interference with image quality was assessed by spurious echo imaging and compared to noise levels acquired while operating the electrical parts within the scanner room.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Imaging was performed successfully in all hearts. The system proved suitable for isolated heart perfusion in a novel 3T XMR suite. No significant additional noise was introduced into the scanner room by our set-up.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We have substantially improved a previous version of an isolated perfused pig heart model and made it applicable for MR imaging in a state of the art clinical 3T XMR imaging suite. The use of this system should aid novel CMR sequence development and translation into clinical practice.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schuster
authors.forename: Amedeo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chiribiri
authors.forename: Masaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ishida
authors.forename: Geraint
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Morton
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Paul
authors.forename: Shazia T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Hussain
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bigalke
authors.forename: Divaka
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Perera
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schaeffter
authors.forename: Eike
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nagel
keywords: Langendorff; cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging; coronary artery disease; isolated heart perfusion; pig; translational research