Relationship of systolic dysfunction to area at risk and infarction size after ischemia-reperfusion in mice

Ana Clara Tude Rodrigues1, Ryuji Hataishi, Fumito Ichinose

  • 1Cardiac Ultrasounds Laboratory, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston 02114, USA.

Insights

Echocardiography reliably assesses the area at risk in mouse models of ischemia-reperfusion injury. However, wall-motion abnormality quantification may underestimate small necrotic areas, impacting infarction size correlation.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiovascular Research
  • Myocardial Infarction
  • Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury

Background:

  • Wall-motion abnormality (WMA) correlates with infarct size in nonreperfused myocardial infarction.
  • This relationship is less clear in ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury models.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate echocardiography's ability to assess WMA in relation to area at risk (AAR) and infarct size in a murine I/R model.
  • To compare WMA with AAR and infarct size following left anterior descending coronary artery occlusion and reperfusion.

Main Methods:

  • Echocardiography in mice at baseline, after 30-min LAD ligation/24-hr reperfusion, and after religation.
  • Comparison of WMA with infarct size (triphenyltetrazolium chloride) and AAR (fluorescent microspheres).

Main Results:

  • Echocardiography revealed left ventricular dilation and dysfunction post-I/R.
  • WMA after religation strongly correlated with AAR (r²=0.70, P<.0001).
  • WMA-infarct size correlation was weaker (r²=0.59, P<.0002), partly due to underestimation of non-transmural infarcts.

Conclusions:

  • Echocardiography reliably assesses AAR in murine I/R models.
  • Echocardiography underestimates small necrotic areas, limiting precise infarct size quantification.
  • WMA is a reliable marker for AAR but less so for infarct size in this setting.

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