A new imaging method to detect heart muscle changes after a heart attack

In vivo cardiac diffusion tensor MRI. Experimental validation and assessment of myocardial structure‐function relationships in the normal and post-infarct remodelled heart

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a powerful, safe research and clinical tool, with more than 2.3 million scans performed each year in the NHS. The BHF has awarded a grant to Professor David Firmin to study a new MRI method called diffusion tensor MRI (DT-MRI), to find out if it can accurately measure the arrangement of heart muscle cells and fibres when the heart is beating. If it can, they will use this method to study how the heart muscle structure determines its beating function. They will also use it to study how the relationship between heart structure and function changes after a heart attack. If successful, this research will move this new imaging method towards the clinic by allowing accurate DT-MRI measurements to be made in patients. It may reveal new insights into what happens in the heart muscle after a heart attack and other types of heart condition.