Adenosine Triphosphate Stress Myocardial Strain in Ischemic Heart Disease: An Animal Study with Histological Validation

Abstract

It is still challenging for cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) to detect ischemic heart disease (IHD) without the use of gadolinium contrast. We aimed to evaluate the potential value of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) stress myocardial strain derived from feature tracking (FT) as a novel method for detecting IHD in a swine model. CMR cines, myocardial perfusion imaging at rest and during ATP stress, and late gadolinium enhancement were obtained in both control and IHD swine. Normal, remote, ischemic, and infarcted myocardium were analyzed. The diagnostic accuracy of myocardial strain for infarction and ischemia was assessed using coronary angiography and pathology as reference. Eleven IHD swine and five healthy control swine were enrolled in this study. Strain parameters, even at rest, were associated with myocardial ischemia and infarction(all p<0.05). The area under receiver operating characteristic curve(AUC) values of all strain parameters for detecting infarcted myocardium exceeded 0.900(all p<0.05). The AUC values for detecting ischemic myocardium were as follows: 0.906 and 0.847 for stress and rest radial strain, 0.763 and 0.716 for stress and rest circumferential strain, 0.758 and 0.663 for stress and rest longitudinal strain(all p<0.001). Heat maps demonstrated that all strain parameters showed mild to moderate correlations with the stress myocardial blood flow and myocardial perfusion reserve(all p<0.05). CMR-FT-derived ATP stress myocardial strain shows promise as a noninvasive method for detecting myocardial ischemia and infarction in an IHD swine model, with rest strain parameters offering potential as a needle-free diagnostic option.