• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.22-30
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• 2003

Purpose : The efficacy of magnetic resonance imaging for evaluating coronary artery disease has been reported. In this study, we evaluated the usefulness of breath-hold segmented K-space cine MR imaging for evaluating the patency of coronary artery bypass grafts (CABG). Materials and Method s : Thirty eight patients with a total of 92 CABGs (36 internal thoracic arteries and 56 saphenous vein grafts) were evaluated using segmented K-space cardiac-gated fast gradient echo sequence (2D-FASTCARD) MR imaging. MR magnitude images were evaluated from the hard copies by two independent observers. A graft was defined as patent if it was seen as a bright small round area on at least two consecutive images throughout the cardiac cycle at a position consistent with the expected location for that graft. Results : MR images were obtained successfully for 23 patients (61%). The sagittal planes were most helpful in visualizing the cross-section of sapheneous vein bypass graft to left circumflex artery branch, whereas the transverse planes were used for identification of internal mammary artery grafts to left anterior descending coronary artery or its branch and identification of saphenous vein grafts to right coronary artery. Forty five grafts were visible using this MR technique, while the grafts were not visible on seven saphenous vein grafts and two internal mammary artery grafts. In two patients showing symptoms of myocardial ischemia, one or two bypass grafts were not visible. Imaging, perpendicular plane to a CABG was important to visualize the flow inside the CABG with maximum sensitivity. Conclusion : Evaluation of patency of the bypass graft was clinically feasible by 2D-FASTCARD MR imaging, whereas any invisible bypass grafts should be further studied by contrast-enhanced MR angiography or by conventional angiography for confirmation of abnormalities.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.200-206
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• 2013

Purpose : To assess the effect of applying an automated heart model based measurements of left ventricle (LV) and compare with manual and semi-automated measurements at Cardiovascular MR Imaging. Materials and Methods: Sixty-two patients who underwent cardiac 1.5T MR imaging were included. Steady state free precession cine images of 20 phases per cardiac cycle were obtained in short axis views and both 2-chamber and 4-chamber views. Epicardial and endocardial contours were drawn in manual, automated, and semi-automated ways. Based on these acquired contour sets, the end-diastolic (ED) and end-systolic (ES) volumes, ejection fraction (EF), systolic volume (SV) and LV mass were calculated and compared. Results: In EDV and ESV, the differences among three measurement methods were not statistically significant (P = .399 and .145, respectively). However, in EF, SV, and LV mass, the differences were statistically significant (P=.001, <001, <001, respectively) and the measured value from automated method tend to be consistently higher than the values from other two methods. Conclusion: An automatic heart model-based method grossly overestimate EF, SV and LV mass compared with manual or semi-automated methods. Even though the method saves a considerable amount of efforts, further manual adjustment should be considered in critical clinical cases.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.7-16
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• 2014

Purpose : To evaluate the prevalence and pattern of perfusion defect (PD) on first-pass stress perfusion MR imaging in relation with the degree of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and late gadolinium-enhancement (LGE) in patients with apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (APH). Materials and Methods: Cardiac MR imaging with first-pass stress perfusion, cine, and LGE sequence was performed in 26 patients with APH from January 2008 to December 2012. We analyzed a total of 416 segments for LV wall thickness on end-diastolic phase of cine images, and evaluated the number of hypertrophied segment and number of consecutive hypertrophied segment (NCH). We assessed the presence or absence of PD and LGE from all patients. If there was PD, we subdivided the pattern into sporadic (sporadic-PD) or ring (ring-PD). Using univariate logistic method, we obtained the independent predictor for presence of overall PD and ring-PD. Results: PD on stress perfusion MRI was observed in 20 patients (76.9%), 12 of them (60%) showed ring-PD. Maximal LV wall thickness and number of hypertrophied segment were independent predictors for overall PD (all, p < 0.05). NCH with more than 3 segments was an additional independent factor for ring-PD. However, LGE was not statistically related with PD in patients with APH. Conclusion: About three quarters of the patients with APH showed PD, most of them represented as ring-PD. LVH degree or distribution was related with pattern of PD, however, LGE was not related with PD. Therefore, the clinical significance of PD in the patients with APH seems to be different from those with non-APH, and further comparison study between the two groups should be carried out.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.10-20
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• 2010

Purpose : Recently, the Recon Challenge at the 2009 ISMRM workshop on Data Sampling and Image Reconstruction at Sedona, Arizona was held to evaluate feasibility of highly accelerated acquisition of time resolved contrast enhanced MR angiography. This paper provides the step-by-step description of the winning results of k-t FOCUSS in this competition. Materials and Methods : In previous works, we proved that k-t FOCUSS algorithm successfully solves the compressed sensing problem even for less sparse cardiac cine applications. Therefore, using k-t FOCUSS, very accurate time resolved contrast enhanced MR angiography can be reconstructed. Accelerated radial trajectory data were synthetized from X-ray cerebral angiography images and provided by the organizing committee, and radiologists double blindly evaluated each reconstruction result with respect to the ground-truth data. Results : The reconstructed results at various acceleration factors demonstrate that each components of compressed sensing, such as sparsifying transform and incoherent sampling patterns, etc can have profound effects on the final reconstruction results. Conclusion : From reconstructed results, we see that the compressed sensing dynamic MR imaging algorithm, k-t FOCUSS enables high resolution time resolved contrast enhanced MR angiography.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.647-659
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• 2020

Objective: The occurrence of intramyocardial hemorrhage (IMH) and microvascular obstruction (MVO) in myocardial infarction (MI), known as severe ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI), has been associated with adverse remodeling. APT102, a soluble human recombinant ecto-nucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase-1, can hydrolyze extracellular nucleotides to attenuate their prothrombotic and proinflammatory effects. The purpose of this study was to temporally evaluate the therapeutic effect of APT102 on IRI in rats and to elucidate the evolution of IRI in the acute stage using cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMRI). Materials and Methods: Fifty-four rats with MI, induced by ligation of the origin of the left anterior descending coronary artery for 60 minutes, were randomly divided into the APT102 (n = 27) or control (n = 27) group. Intravenous infusion of APT102 (0.3 mg/kg) or placebo was administered 15 minutes before reperfusion, and then 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours, and on day 4 after reperfusion. CMRI was performed at 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours, and on day 5 post-reperfusion using a 7T system and the hearts were collected for histopathological examination. Cardiac function was quantified using cine imaging and IMH/edema using T2 mapping, and infarct/MVO using late gadolinium enhancement. Results: The extent of infarction (p < 0.001), edema (p < 0.001), IMH (p = 0.013), and MVO (p = 0.049) was less severe in the APT102 group than in the control group. IMH size at 48 hours was significantly greater than that at 24 hours, 72 hours, and 5 days after reperfusion (all p < 0.001). The left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was significantly greater in the APT102 group than in the control group (p = 0.006). There was a negative correlation between LVEF and IMH (r = -0.294, p = 0.010) and a positive correlation between IMH and MVO (r = 0.392, p < 0.001). Conclusion: APT102 can significantly alleviate damage to the ischemic myocardium and microvasculature. IMH size peaked at 48 hours post reperfusion and IMH is a downstream consequence of MVO. IMH may be a potential therapeutic target to prevent adverse remodeling in MI.