Figure 9.

Cardiac MRE performed in vivo in a normal pig as described in Kolipaka et al. (208). The pig was imaged in the supine position with a pneumatic drum driver operating at 80 Hz placed above the heart. Data were acquired in a short axis view of the left ventricle while simultaneous measurements of the left ventricular pressure were made. Volume measurements of the left ventricle were performed using separate multislice cine bSSFP acquisitions of the heart. The figure shows the stiffness, pressure, and volume measurements indicating that the measured stiffness correlates well with the changes in ventricular pressure during the cardiac cycle and suggesting that noninvasive stiffness-volume curves obtained with MRE may provide similar information about cardiac function as invasive pressure-volume measurements. (Courtesy of Dr. Arunark Kolipaka, The Ohio State University Medical Center, Columbus, OH.)