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Variability of Mouse Left Ventricular Function Assessment by 11.7 Tesla MRI

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Abstract

We studied intraobserver (n = 24), interobserver (n = 24) and interexperiment (n = 12) reproducibility of left ventricular (LV) mass and volume measurements in mice using an 11.7 T MRI system. The LV systolic function was assessed with a short-axis FLASH-cine sequence in 29 mice, including animals having undergone transverse aortic constriction. Bland-Altman and regression analysis were used to compare the different data sets. Reproducibility was excellent for the LV mass and end-diastolic volume (coefficient of variability (CoV) between 5.4 and 11.8 %), good for end-systolic volume (CoV 15.2–19.4 %) and moderate for stroke volume and ejection fraction (CoV 14.7–20.9 %). We found an excellent correlation between LV mass determined by MRI and ex vivo morphometric data (r = 0.92). In conclusion, LV systolic function can be assessed on an 11.7 T MRI scanner with high reproducibility for most parameters, as needed in longitudinal studies. However, data should be interpreted taking into account the moderate reproducibility of small volumes.

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Abbreviations

CMR:

Cardiovascular magnetic resonance

CoV:

Coefficient of variability

EDV:

End-diastolic volume

EF:

Ejection fraction

ESV:

End-systolic volume

FLASH:

Fast low angle shot

LV:

Left ventricle

SV:

Stroke volume

TL:

Tibial length

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Acknowledgments

We thank Julie Magat and Hassan Jassar for their assistance during the MRI manipulations. This work was supported by grants from the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique FRS-FNRS, the Foundation Saint-Luc and the Belgian National Foundation for Research in Pediatric Cardiology.

Conflict of Interest

No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

Animal Studies

All institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed and approved by the appropriate institutional committees. No human studies were carried out by the authors for this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Paediatric Cardiology, Department of Paediatrics, Cliniques Universitaires St. Luc, Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), Avenue Hippocrate 10/1380, B-1200, Brussels, Belgium

    Laetitia Vanhoutte & Stéphane Moniotte

  2. Biomedical Magnetic Resonance Unit (REMA), Louvain Drug Research Institute (LDRI), UCL, Brussels, Belgium

    Laetitia Vanhoutte & Bernard Gallez

  3. Pole of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (FATH), Institute of Experimental and Clinical Research (IREC), UCL, Brussels, Belgium

    Laetitia Vanhoutte, Olivier Feron, Jean-Luc Balligand & Hrag Esfahani

  4. Institute for Health and Society (IRSS), UCL, Brussels, Belgium

    William d’Hoore

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  1. Laetitia Vanhoutte
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Correspondence to Laetitia Vanhoutte.

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Editor-in-Chief Jennifer L. Hall oversaw the review of this article

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Vanhoutte, L., Gallez, B., Feron, O. et al. Variability of Mouse Left Ventricular Function Assessment by 11.7 Tesla MRI. J. of Cardiovasc. Trans. Res. 8, 362–371 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12265-015-9638-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12265-015-9638-0

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