MRI evaluation of left ventricular hypertrophy in a canine model of aortic stenosis

The progression of ventricular myocardial mass in nine puppies with experimental left ventricular hypertrophy and three controls was observed over a period of 7 months using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Left ventricular hypertrophy was created by surgically induced aortic stenosis when the puppies were 1 month old. Quantification of the progression of the left ventricular mass due to aortic stenosis as compared to the controls of similar age was then performed during the subsequent 7 months. Cardiac gated spin-echo technique was used for the imaging of the heart. Novel edge detection techniques were applied for automated identification of the border of the myocardium for measurement. Methods for correction of partial volume effect were applied in the analysis of the data. Clear-cut differences in myocardial mass (P less than .001) and in radius-to-wall thickness ratio (r/h, P less than .02) between puppies with aortic stenosis and controls were observed. The differences in end-diastolic volume between the two groups, however, were significant during the initial phase of hypertrophic compensation (P less than .001) and insignificant (P greater than .05) during the long-term phase of hypertrophic compensation. The results demonstrated that MRI is applicable in serial assessment of myocardial hypertrophy.