How can cardiac MR imaging help guide development of gene therapy for treatment of coronary heart disease?

Jacquier et al have shown with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging that therapy with direct intracardiac injection of vascular endothelial growth factor gene (VEGF) improves myocardial function in a model of myocardial infarction in swine. Jacquier and colleagues used MR imaging to measure left ventricular (LV) function and strain and showed that animals treated with gene therapy had stable ejection fraction whereas control animals deteriorated.