Characterization of human pathological papillary muscles by 1H-NMR spectroscopic and histologic analysis.

Two groups of human pathological papillary muscle samples were analyzed by 1H-NMR spectroscopy and histology. The first group, mainly characterized by hypertrophy of the myocardial cells, interstitial edema and intracellular lipoperoxide accumulation showed similar T1 as well as T2 values. The second group, mainly characterized by hypertrophy of the myocardial cells, fibrosis and areas of necrosis showed T1 values longer than those of the first group while no appreciable differences were evident in the T2 values. These results suggest that a certain degree of correlation exists between the histologic features of the cardiac tissue examined and the relaxation behavior as defined by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy even if a definite association between them is still not possible.