Metabolism and microcirculation in cardiovascular pathologies

Research Works

Microvascular function plays a key role in the early stages of cardiac disease development. Investigation of myocardial energetics using phosphorus-31 magnetic resonance spectroscopy (P-31 MRS) is a unique non-invasive method to measure the concentrations of high energy phosphates in cardiac tissues in situ. Emerging evidence suggests that myocardial triglyceride content is increased in obese and type 2 diabetic patients, especially when the heart exceeds the capacity to cope with the uptake and oxidation of free fatty acids (FFA). This excess of FFA may exert a lipotoxic effect on the heart. Myocardial lipid content has recently become a new therapeutic target for metabolic-related heart diseases. Following triglyceride content with proton spectroscopy is then an interesting approach. In parallel epicardial fat is also a target marker in metabolic diseases.

The CVS team investigates the relevance of MR biomarkers related to myocardial perfusion, energetic metabolism and ectopic fat for diagnosis and therapy follow up. This protocol of investigation is implemented in different populations of patients developing a metabolic syndrome, in collaboration with different clinical departments.

Phosphorus spectrum in the myocardium using P-31 MR-Spectroscopy.

The CVS team develops in vivo cardiac MR spectroscopy and spectroscopic imaging (CSI) techniques and associated post-processing software for human and small animal studies. Single-voxel ¹H spectroscopy and ³¹P-3D-CSI acquisitions were employed in several human cardiac application studies in the fields of Nutrition, Obesity and Diabetes.

A CSI post-processing tool, continuously developed by Y. Le Fur, uniquely incorporates a 3D real-time voxel-shift technique with display of the accurate voxel size and shape based on the point-spread function.

An original retrospective respiratory gating technique has been developed for single-voxel 1H cardiac spectroscopy in humans (Sourdon et al. J Cardiovasc. Magn. Reson. 2021). A double-gated 1H PRESS technique was used for measuring intramyocellular lipids in a mouse model of diabetes (Abdesselam et al. J Cardiovasc. Magn. Reson. 2015).

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