Inhomogeneous Magnetization Transfer (ihMT) imaging of the cardiac Purkinje fibers from sheep’s heart at 9.4 T

Motivation: The architecture of the cardiac conduction system is implicated in cardiac arrhythmias such as ventricular fibrillation and characterizing this structure will help better understand and diagnose these arrhythmias. Goal(s): Optimizing the inhomogeneous magnetization transfer technique for 3D imaging of conducting fibers. Approach: A range of parameters for ihMTRARE sequence were explored for imaging samples from sheep’s left ventricles containing free-running Purkinje fibers and myocardium. Results: Across samples, ihMTR signal was found consistently higher in fibers compared to the myocardium for the chosen saturation parameters. This finding holds promise for future 3D imaging of the cardiac conduction system. Impact: The results of this study hold promise for future 3D imaging of larger samples of the left ventricle containing free-running and intramural Purkinje fibers using the optimized sequence which would allow the segmentation and characterization of these fibers.