Low-dose dobutamine cardiovascular magnetic resonance segmental strain study of early phase of intramyocardial hemorrhage rats

Background This study investigates the segmental myocardial strain of the early phase of intramyocardial hemorrhage (IMH) caused by reperfused myocardial infarction (MI) in rats by low-dose dobutamine (LDD) cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) feature-tracking. Methods Nine sham rats and nine rats with 60-min myocardial ischemia followed by 48-h reperfusion were investigated using CMR, including T2*-mapping sequence and fast imaging with steady-state precession (FISP)–cine sequence. Another FISP–cine sequence was acquired after 2 min of dobutamine injection; the MI, IMH, and Non-MI (NMI) areas were identified. The values of peak radial strains (PRS) and peak circumferential strains (PCS) of the MI, IMH and NMI segments were acquired. The efficiency of PRS and PCS (EPRS and EPCS, respectively) were calculated on the basis of the time of every single heartbeat. Results The PRS, PCS, EPRS, and EPCS of the sham group increased after LDD injection. However, the PRS, PCS, EPRS, and EPCS of the IMH segment did not increase. Moreover, the PRS and PCS of the MI and NMI segments did not increase, but the EPRS and EPCS of these segments increased. The PRS, PCS, EPRS, and EPCS of the IMH segment were lower than those of the MI and NMI segments before and after LDD injection, but without a significant difference between MI segment and NMI segment before and after LDD injection. Conclusions LDD could help assess dysfunctions in segments with IMH, especially using the efficiency of strain. IMH was a crucial factor that decreased segmental movement and reserved function.

T1-mapping and extracellular volume in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy without focal myocardial injury in late gadolinium enhancement sequence

Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Background The LGE (late gadolinium enhancement) sequence is a recognized classic tool for imaging focal myocardial injury. The T1-mapping sequence to assess native T1 myocardial time, post-contrast T1 time, and myocardial extracellular volume (ECV) is a widely studied tool for imaging focal and diffused myocardial injury. Purpose The aim of the study was to evaluate the native T1 time, the post-contrast T1 time and the myocardial extracellular volume in the T1-mapping sequence in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy without focal LGE myocardial injury. Methods The study group consisted of 28 consecutive patients who met the criteria for diagnosis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy without focal LGE myocardial injury (HCM group; mean age 52.17 ± 6.35 years). 28 patients without cardiomyopathy (CON group; mean age 51.76 ± 6.49 years) with similar anthropometric parameters were selected by the case-to-case method as a control group. All patients underwent 1.5 T cardiac magnetic resonance, including cinematographic sequences (CINE), LGE sequence and T1-mapping sequences before (native) and 20-minutes after intravenous administration of a paramagnetic agent (post-contrast). In the T1-mapping sequences, the mean T1 time of the whole myocardium (T1 whole myocardium) was assessed, as well as the T1 time in the basal layers (T1 basal), middle layers (T1 middle) and apical layers (T1 apical) of the myocardium. Moreover, the mean T1 time was assessed in the 16-segment myocardial AHA model (T1 segment 1-16). The extracellular volume of the myocardium was estimated in an analogous way. Results In CINE sequences, in the HCM group compared to the CON group, the end-diastolic thickness of the anterior part of interventricular septum, the end-diastolic thickness of the left ventricular posterior wall and the left ventricular mass index were significantly higher. The studied groups did not differ in left ventricular ejection fraction. In both groups, no foci of myocardial injury in the LGE sequence were found. There were no statistically significant differences in T1 times between the study groups. In the HCM group as compared to the CON group, the ECV whole myocardium, ECV basal, ECV apical and ECV segments 1-3, 8, 13-16 were statistically significantly higher. Conclusion Patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy without myocardium focal injury in the LGE sequence are characterized by higher myocardial ECV values, assessed in the T1-mapping sequence.

Low-Dose Dobutamine Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Segmental Strain Study of Early Phase of Intramyocardial Hemorrhage Rats

Background: This study investigates the segmental myocardial strain of the early phase of intramyocardial hemorrhage (IMH) caused by reperfused myocardial infarction (MI) in rats by low-dose dobutamine (LDD) cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) feature-tracking. Methods: Nine sham rats and nine rats with 60-min myocardial ischemia followed by 48-h reperfusion were investigated using CMR, including T2*-mapping sequence and fast imaging with steady-state precession (FISP)–cine sequence. Another FISP–cine sequence was acquired after 2 min of dobutamine injection; the MI, IMH, and Non-MI (NMI) areas were identified. The values of peak radial strains (PRS) and peak circumferential strains (PCS) of the MI, IMH and NMI segments were acquired. The efficiency of PRS and PCS (EPRS and EPCS, respectively) were calculated on the basis of the time of every single heartbeat. Results: The PRS, PCS, EPRS, and EPCS of the sham group increased after LDD injection. However, the PRS, PCS, EPRS, and EPCS of the IMH segment did not increase. Moreover, the PRS and PCS of the MI and NMI segments did not increase, but the EPRS and EPCS of these segments increased. The PRS, PCS, EPRS, and EPCS of the IMH segment were lower than those of the MI and NMI segments before and after LDD injection, but without a significant difference between MI segment and NMI segment before and after LDD injection. Conclusions: LDD could help assess dysfunctions in segments with IMH, especially using the efficiency of strain. IMH was a crucial factor that decreased segmental movement and reserved function.

Role of adding T2 mapping sequence to the routine MR imaging protocol in the assessment of articular knee cartilage in osteoarthritis

Background This work aims at elucidating the role of adding complementary T2 mapping to the routine 1.5 Tesla MRI protocol in the articular knee cartilage assessment for early detection of osteoarthritis, and also, comparing the articular cartilage thickness and T2 relaxation times between the case and control groups regarding knee compartments affection. Results Both sensitivities and specificities were 73.3% and 100%, respectively, for the standard MR protocol alone and 96.7% and 90% after adding the T2 mapping to the standard MR protocol that leads to significant sensitivity improvement. A comparison between patients and controls as regards T2 values showed a highly statistically significant difference (independent T test, p <0.001). Conclusion A combination of both morphological and T2 mapping MRI, together with clinical evaluation represents a desirable multimodal approach to the diagnosis of osteoarthritis. In the early detection of osteoarthritis, adding T2 mapping sequence to the standard MR protocol at 1.5 Tesla improved sensitivity from 73.3 to 96.7%.

Role of T2 Mapping Sequences using MR Imaging in Evaluation of Knee Joint Articular Cartilage

Background: Cartilage mapping using Magnetic Resonance Imaging T2 is a functional scanning procedure without invasion delivering cartography of the cartilage T2 relaxation time without using of any contrast. It is tissue anisotropy sensitive, and compositional data on the collagen network of cartilage, content of water and concentration of proteoglycans are provided by it. This study used MR scanning technique to assess the T2 mapping sequence role in diagnosis of articular cartilage lesions of knee joint. Patients and Methods: This prospective trial was done to utilize sagittal T2 mapping sequence for assessment of articular cartilage of knee joint on 1.5 T MR. The material of this study included thirty (30) patients. The study included 24/30 cases presented by knee pain, 6/30 cases presented by knee pain following trauma, 10/30 cases presented by limitation of movement and 7/30 cases presented by knee swelling. As each patient had a single conventional MRI examination of the knee followed by a single sagittal T2 maps, 30 MRI examinations and 30 corresponding T2 maps were analyzed. Results: The addition of sagittal T2 maps to standard views improved accuracy in diagnosing cartilage affection in early osteoarthritis. there are 69 (57.5%) lesions diagnosed as grade 0 by MRI only VS 24 (20%) lesions diagnosed as grade 0 by MRI with T2 mapping sequence and 34 (28.3%) lesions diagnosed as grade 1 by MRI only VS 77 (64.2%) lesions diagnosed as grade 1 by MRI with T2 mapping sequence. there is 46 (38.3%) lesions diagnosed as grade 1a by MRI with T2 mapping sequence which diagnosed grade 0 by MRI only. Conclusions: This imaging plane seems to provide a useful addition to standard MR imaging when osteoarthritis is suspected specially among the young population.

Advanced compositional imaging T2 mapping sequence in detection of stages of medial knee joint compartments articular cartilage degeneration

Background The predictive value of the new imaging sequences, especially T2 mapping in assessment of articular cartilage abnormalities of the medial knee compartments in patients with medial knee pain. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the additional value of T2 mapping over using a baseline standard knee MRI to detect cartilage lesions of the medial compartments in patients representing with medial knee pain. Results The study included 60 patients presented with medial knee pain, where divided into two groups ; control group (20 volunteers) with age range from 19 to 41 years old 26.80 ± 8.05 (mean ± SD) and patients (40 candidates) with age range from 13 to 57 years old with a mean age 33.00 ± 14.1 (mean ± SD). Conclusion On adding T2 mapping sequence to the routine MRI of the knee, the sensitivity for detecting knee cartilage lesions was increased, especially in the detection of early cartilage degeneration at the medial compartment. Compositional MR imaging including T2 mapping plays an important role in the assessment of early and potentially reversible cartilage damage especially among the young population.

Sediment Metagenomes as Time Capsules of Lake Microbiomes

ABSTRACT The reconstruction of ecological time series from lake sediment archives can retrace the environmental impact of human activities. Molecular genetic approaches in paleolimnology have provided unprecedented access to DNA time series, which record evidence of the microbial ecologies that underlaid historical lake ecosystems. Such studies often rely on single-gene surveys, and consequently, the full diversity of preserved microorganisms remains unexplored. In this study, we probed the diversity archived in contemporary and preindustrial sediments by comparative shotgun metagenomic analysis of surface water and sediment samples from three eastern Canadian lakes. In a strategy that was aimed at disentangling historical DNA from the indigenous sediment background, microbial preservation signals were captured by mapping sequence similarities between sediment metagenome reads and reference surface water metagenome assemblies. We detected preserved Cyanobacteria, diverse bacterioplankton, microeukaryotes, and viruses in sediment metagenomes. Among the preserved microorganisms were important groups never before reported in paleolimnological reconstructions, including bacteriophages (Caudovirales) and ubiquitous freshwater Betaproteobacteria (Polynucleobacter and Limnohabitans). In contrast, ultramicroscopic Actinobacteria (“Candidatus Nanopelagicales”) and Alphaproteobacteria (Pelagibacterales) were apparently not well preserved in sediment metagenomes even though they were numerically dominant in surface water metagenomes. Overall, our study explored a novel application of whole-metagenome shotgun sequencing for discovering the DNA remains of a broad diversity of microorganisms preserved in lake sediments. The recovery of diverse microbial time series supports the taxonomic expansion of microbiome reconstructions and the development of novel microbial paleoindicators. IMPORTANCE Lakes are critical freshwater resources under mounting pressure from climate change and other anthropogenic stressors. The reconstruction of ecological time series from sediment archives with paleolimnological techniques has been shown to be an effective means of understanding how humans are modifying lake ecosystems over extended timescales. In this study, we combined shotgun DNA sequencing with a novel comparative analysis of surface water and sediment metagenomes to expose the diversity of microorganisms preserved in lake sediments. The detection of DNA from a broad diversity of preserved microbes serves to more fully reconstruct historical microbiomes and describe preimpact lake conditions.