Quantitative ultrasound with ultrafast imaging detected significantly larger effective scatterer diameter in a murine model of dilated cardiomyopathy compared to healthy controls (p=0.02).
Does quantitative ultrasound with ultrafast imaging detect myocardial microstructural changes in a murine model of dilated cardiomyopathy compared to healthy controls?
Ultrafast quantitative ultrasound imaging can non-invasively detect myocardial microstructural changes in a murine model of dilated cardiomyopathy, suggesting potential future utility in cardiac diagnostics.
p-value: p=0.02
Structural changes in myocardial tissue, such as fibrosis and necrosis, contribute to cardiac remodeling and dysfunction. Histological analysis remains the gold standard for assessing these changes but is invasive. In this study, we demonstrate a non-invasive approach using quantitative ultrasound (QUS) with ultrafast imaging to characterize myocardial microstructure in a murine model of heart failure. A cardiomyocyte-specific Tafazzin knockout (TAZ-cKO) mouse model of dilated cardiomyopathy was used, alongside healthy controls (3 KO, 5 control mice). Ultrafast plane-wave image data were acquired over two full cardiac cycles from the left ventricular parasternal long-axis view. Data were acquired using a Verasonics Vantage NXT system and a 28-MHz linear array transducer, with three tilted plane waves (−7.5°, 1°, 7.5°) at an effective frame rate of 8 kHz. Ten coherently compounded frames during diastole per cardiac cycle were temporally concatenated to improve QUS spectral analysis. The QUS parameter of effective scatterer diameter (ESD) was calculated from the backscatter coefficient using a Gaussian model and reference phantom method. The results showed significantly larger ESD in KO mice compared to controls (p = 0.02), indicating QUS was effective to non-invasively detect myocardial microstructural changes, which may have future clinical utility in cardiac diagnostics.
Wahyulaksana et al. (Wed,) conducted a other in Dilated cardiomyopathy (n=8). Quantitative ultrasound (QUS) with ultrafast imaging vs. Healthy controls was evaluated on Effective scatterer diameter (ESD) (p=0.02). Quantitative ultrasound with ultrafast imaging detected significantly larger effective scatterer diameter in a murine model of dilated cardiomyopathy compared to healthy controls (p=0.02).