Magnetic resonance imaging of progressive cardiomyopathic changes in mice using a clinical 3-T MR scanner

Purpose: Due to the small size of mice hearts of less than 1cm magnetic field strengths between 4.7-T and 11.7-T and dedicated animal scanners are recommended for cine experiments on mice hearts. The purpose of our study was to evaluate if a clinical 3-T MR scanner can be used to assess noninvasively progressive cardiomyopathic changes in mice. Material and Methods: Eight healthy mice and three mice with transverse aortic constriction (TAC) were imaged on a clinical 3-T MR scanner (Achieva, Philips) using a dedicated RF-mouse-coil. Gated gradient echo sequences were used to obtain cineographic short-axis slices…