Whole Heart, Whole Cardiac Cycle, Motion-Resolved, 3D T2*-Mapping Reveals Myocardial T2* Differences Between Wild-Type and HCM Mice

Motivation: To explore various stages of myocardial pathophysiology and improve prediction and interception of disease progression by capturing myocardial T2* variations across cardiac cycle. Goal(s): To establish a framework that operates independently of ECG- and respiratory-gating, enabling cinematic, whole-heart myocardial T2*-mapping in mouse models. Approach: A tailored framework was developed using modified Multi-Gradient-Echo (MGE) sequence and Low-Rank-Tensor (LRT) reconstruction technique. In vivo study was performed. Results: Our preliminary findings demonstrate the feasibility of flow-compensated, free breathing, fully ungated, cardiac motion-resolved, whole heart and whole cardiac cycle coverage CINE imaging and T2* mapping in healthy and diseased mice heart. Impact: The differences in myocardial T2* obtained for wild-type mice and HCM model provide a new metric ΔT2*,rel for myocardial tissue characterization, and springboard to inform on the different stages of myocardial pathophysiology and improve prediction and interception of disease progression.