Imaging reactive oxygen species and tissue iron in ischemia-reperfusion injury in swine with multimodal [18F]ROStrace PET/CT and QSM

Additional myocardial injury can occur after reestablishing blood flow post ischemia. We use a multimodal protocol of sequential quantitative susceptibility mapping and positron emission tomography to directly image reactive oxygen species (ROS) and tissue iron in vivo in pig hearts after ischemic injury. We found that ROS was increased in infarct compared to remote regions of the myocardium in all animals. In an animal with microvascular obstruction, we observed an increase in susceptibility measured by QSM in the infarct region, indicating increased tissue iron, but no increased susceptibility was seen in the animals without microvascular obstruction.