Direct comparison of an intravascular and an extracellular contrast agent for quantification of myocardial perfusion

A direct comparison of extracellular and intravascular contrast agents for the assessment of myocardial perfusion was carried out in a porcine model (N = 5) with a flow-limiting occluder on the left anterior descending coronary artery. Rapid imaging during the first pass of an extracellular or intravascular contrast agent with a saturation-recovery-prepared TurboFLASH sequence showed comparable peak contrast-to-noise enhancements in myocardial tissue regions with flows averaging 1.1 ± 0.2 at baseline to 4.8 ± 0.6 ml/min/g during hyperemia. The coefficient of variation between the MR estimates of blood flow with Gadomer-17 and the microsphere blood flow measurements was 11 ± 11, while the corresponding coefficient of variation for blood flow estimates with the extracellular CA was 23 ± 11. Blood volume differences between rest and hyperemia observed with the intravascular tracer were significant (Vvasc(rest) = 0.078 ± 0.013 ml/g, versus Vvasc(hyperemia) = 0.102 ± 0.019 ml/g; p < 0.05). The effects of water exchange were minimized through the choice of pulse sequence parameters to provide blood volume estimates consistent with the changes expected between rest and hyperemia. This study represents the first application of multiple indicators in first pass imaging studies for the assessment of myocardial perfusion. The use of an intravascular instead of an extracellular contrast agent allows a reduction of the degrees of freedom for modeling tissue residue curves and results in improved accuracy of blood flow estimates.