High-Resolution Echocardiographic Assessment of Infarct Size and Cardiac Function in Mice with Myocardial Infarction

Background: The aim of this study was to develop a simple and reasonably precise echocardiographic method for the assessment of infarct size (IS) and cardiac dysfunction in mice after myocardial infarction. Methods: In vivo experiments were performed in C57BL/6J wild-type mice (n = 18) before and 48 hours after left anterior descending coronary artery ligation. Endocardial length-based echocardiographic IS was validated with that by three different histologic measurements. Left ventricular function was evaluated. Results: Excellent agreement was found between endocardial length-based echocardiographic measurement and angle-based histologic measurement of IS (r = 0.82, P < .001), and both methods strongly correlated with Tei index (r = 0.82, P < .001, and r = 0.74, P < .01) and fractional area change (r = -0.61, P < .05, and r = -0.81, P < .001). Conclusions: Endocardial length-based echocardiographic measurement proved to be a useful method for assessing myocardial IS and is applicable for biomedical and imaging research, and appears particularly promising in studies of left ventricular remodeling after myocardial infarction. (J Am Soc Echocardiogr 2011; 24: 219-26.)