Quantitative myocardial perfusion in mice based on the signal intensity of flow sensitized CMR.

Background: In the conventional approach to arterial spin labeling in the rodent heart, the relative difference in the apparent T(1) relaxation times corresponding to selective and non-selective inversion is related to perfusion via a two compartment model of tissue. But accurate determination of T(1) in small animal hearts is difficult and prone to errors due to long scan times and high heart rates. In this study we introduce the theoretical frame work for an alternative method (SI-method) based purely on the signal intensity of slice-select and non-select inversion recovery images at a single inversion time at short repetition time.