Introduction Under physiological conditions, myocardial blood flow (MBF), myocardial oxygen extraction fraction (OEF), and oxygen consumption (MVO2) are intimately related. Myocardial ischemia exists when the supply of oxygen to the myocardial tissue is inadequate for the metabolic oxygen demand of myocardium. MRI has shown the capability to non-invasively image MBF and myocardial oxygenation. ...

The controversy regarding the mechanism(s) of left ventricular (LV) dysfunction in chronic coronary artery disease is, in part, related to the lack of an appropriate animal model for this condition. We have developed such a model by placing Ameroid constrictors on proximal portions of coronary arteries in dogs who were euthanized (mean of 6 wk) after the development of severe global LV dysfunct...

Background Myocardial blood flow (MBF) can be quantified from arterial input function (AIF) and myocardial output function in perfusion MRI by using tracer kinetic modeling. Fermi function constrained deconvolution has been widely used to determine MBF and myocardial perfusion reserve (MPR). However, stress MBF and MPR in healthy subjects quantified by the Fermi deconvolution approach were repo...

AIMS We studied the interrelation between oxygen consumption and myocardial blood flow (MBF) during recovery. MBF is directly dependent on oxygen consumption. The latter is linearly related to the heart rate-blood pressure product (RPP, bpm × mmHg), an index reflecting external cardiac work. In the immediate post-exercise period, cardiac output decreases considerably. This is expected to be par...

BACKGROUND Myocardial arterial spin labeling (ASL) is a noninvasive MRI based technique that is capable of measuring myocardial blood flow (MBF) in humans. It suffers from poor sensitivity to MBF due to high physiological noise (PN). This study aims to determine if the sensitivity of myocardial ASL to MBF can be improved by reducing image acquisition time, via parallel imaging. METHODS Myocar...

BACKGROUND Recent evidence suggests that the diagnostic accuracy of myocardial perfusion imaging is improved by quantifying stress myocardial blood flow (MBF) in absolute terms. We evaluated a comprehensive quantitative (13)N-ammonia positron emission tomography ((13)NH3-PET) diagnostic panel, including stress MBF, coronary flow reserve (CFR), and relative flow reserve (RFR) in conjunction with...

BACKGROUND Microneurography and venous occlusion plethysmography can be considered methods of assessment of the sympathetic activity. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the intensity of the sympathetic activity through microneurography and venous occlusion plethysmography in patients with heart failure (HF) and correlate this intensity with prognosis. METHODS 52 patients with HF (ejection fraction < 45%...

BACKGROUND Elevated serum uric acid (SUA) levels have been independently associated with cardiovascular disease. Stress myocardial perfusion positron emission tomography (PET) allows for measurement of absolute myocardial blood flow (MBF) and quantification of global left ventricular coronary flow reserve (CFR). A CFR <2.0 is considered impaired coronary vascular function, and it is associated ...

BACKGROUND Risk stratification for ventricular arrhythmias (VAs) is important to refine selection criteria for primary prevention implantable cardioverter defibrillator therapy. Impaired hyperemic myocardial blood flow (MBF) is associated with increased mortality rate in ischemic and nonischemic cardiomyopathy, which may be attributed to electric instability inducing VAs. The aim of this pilot ...

UNLABELLED Multislice CT provides information on coronary luminal narrowing and on the structural abnormalities of the coronary arterial wall using densitometric analysis. We sought to investigate the effects of coronary luminal narrowing, structural abnormalities of the coronary arterial wall, and cardiovascular risk factors on regional and global myocardial blood flow (MBF) reserve. METHODS...