Serial CE-CMR identified changes in spatial extent and intensity of coronary contrast enhancement in patients after AMI. This technique may be useful for the characterization of transient coronary tissue signal changes, which may represent edema or inflammation during the post-infarction phase. In addition, CE-CMR may offer the potential for visualization of inflammatory activity in atherosclerosis associated with acute coronary syndromes.

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Background Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of risk factors for a poor outcome have been identified. Thereby, cardiovascular comorbidity has a major impact on mortality. We investigated whether coronary calcification as a marker for coronary artery disease (CAD) is appropriate for risk prediction in COVID-19. Methods Hospitalized patients with COVID-19 (n = 109) were analyzed regarding clinical outcome after native computed tomography (CT) imaging for COVID-19 screening. CAC (coronary calcium score) and clinical outcome (need for intensive care treatment or death) data were calculated following a standardized protocol. We defined three endpoints: critical COVID-19 and transfer to ICU, fatal COVID-19 and death, composite endpoint critical and fatal COVID-19, a composite of ICU treatment and death. We evaluated the association of clinical outcome with the CAC. Patients were dichotomized by the median of CAC. Hazard ratios and odds ratios were calculated for the events death or ICU or a composite of death and ICU. Results We observed significantly more events for patients with CAC above the group’s median of 31 for critical outcome (HR: 1.97[1.09,3.57], p = 0.026), for fatal outcome (HR: 4.95[1.07,22.9], p = 0.041) and the composite endpoint (HR: 2.31[1.28,4.17], p = 0.0056. Also, odds ratio was significantly increased for critical outcome (OR: 3.01 [1.37, 6.61], p = 0.01) and for fatal outcome (OR: 5.3 [1.09, 25.8], p = 0.02). Conclusion The results indicate a significant association between CAC and clinical outcome in COVID-19. Our data therefore suggest that CAC might be useful in risk prediction in patients with COVID-19.

BackgroundDynamic first pass contrast-enhanced myocardial perfusion is the standard CMR method for the estimation of myocardial blood flow (MBF) and MBF reserve in man, but it is challenging in rodents because of the high temporal and spatial resolution requirements. Hyperemic first pass myocardial perfusion CMR during vasodilator stress in mice has not been reported.MethodsFive C57BL/6 J mice were scanned on a clinical 3.0 Tesla Achieva system (Philips Healthcare, Netherlands). Vasodilator stress was induced via a tail vein catheter with an injection of dipyridamole. Dynamic contrast-enhanced perfusion imaging (Gadobutrol 0.1 mmol/kg) was based on a saturation recovery spoiled gradient echo method with 10-fold k-space and time domain undersampling (k-t PCA). One week later the mice underwent repeat anaesthesia and LV injections of fluorescent microspheres at rest and at stress. Microspheres were analysed using confocal microscopy and fluorescence-activated cell sorting.ResultsMean MBF at rest measured by Fermi-function constrained deconvolution was 4.1 ± 0.5 ml/g/min and increased to 9.6 ± 2.5 ml/g/min during dipyridamole stress (P = 0.005). The myocardial perfusion reserve was 2.4 ± 0.54. The mean count ratio of stress to rest microspheres was 2.4 ± 0.51 using confocal microscopy and 2.6 ± 0.46 using fluorescence. There was good agreement between cardiovascular magnetic resonance CMR and microspheres with no significant difference (P = 0.84).ConclusionFirst-pass myocardial stress perfusion CMR in a mouse model is feasible at 3 Tesla. Rest and stress MBF values were consistent with existing literature and perfusion reserve correlated closely to microsphere analysis. Data were acquired on a 3 Tesla scanner using an approach similar to clinical acquisition protocols, potentially facilitating translation of imaging findings between rodent and human studies.