Results of a tissue engineered pulmonary valve in humans assessed with CMR

Abstract

Methods TEng valves had been implanted into the right ventricular outflow tract of 12 pts (age: 15 ± 8,5 yrs; Matrix-PTM n = 7; Matrix-P-PlusTM n = 5) due to pulmonary stenosis or insufficiency within a median 5 months range (2-7 months) before a comprehensive follow-up by CMR. Echocardiography was suspicious of accelerated blood flow in the main pulmonary artery in 10 of those. The severity of the pulmonary valve stenosis was assessed by gradient echo cine MRI (FOV 270 × 270 mm, voxel size 1.88 × 1.94 × 5 mm, TR/TE/α = 4.4 ms/2.7 ms/15°) and phase-contrast velocity mapping (FOV 270 × 270 mm, voxel size 1.64 × 1.4 × 7 mm, TR/TE/α = 15 ms/2.5 ms/30°, velocity encoding (VENC) = 400 cm/s) were applied. For tissue characterisation late enhancement imaging (Gd 0.1 mmol/kg) using an ECG triggered 3D inversion recovery sequence (TR/TE/α= 3.7 ms/1.8 ms/15°; voxel size 1.17 × 1.27 × 10 mm) and T1 and T2 weighted turbo spin echo sequences were utilized.