ASL-CMR detects coronary microvascular dysfunction in diabetic mice: a multi-imaging modality comparison

Motivation: Diagnosis of CMD in diabetes is clinically important. While both TTDE and ASL-CMR hold promise for non-invasive CMD detection, their diagnostic efficacy in different types of diabetes has not been systematically evaluated. Goal(s): Comparing the diagnostic performance of ASL-CMR versus TTDE in detecting CMD in different types of diabetes. Approach: ASL-CMR and TTDE were performed on type 1 and type 2 diabetic mouse models at rest and stress states. The derived imaging markers were correlated with histological findings for validation. Results: ASL-CMR demonstrated higher sensitivity in detecting CMD, showing stronger correlation with histopathological changes (R²=0.81) compared to TTDE (R²=0.67). Impact: ASL-CMR enables early detection and quantitative assessment of coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) in diabetes as validated against histology, which may server as a useful tool for monitoring CMD progression and evaluating therapeutic interventions without contrast agents or radiation exposure.