Platform for myocardial infarct MRI and delivery of therapeutics

仅在美国，心肌梗塞（MI）每年就折磨超过一百万人。MI导致永久性左心室（LV）瘢痕形成，导致泵效率降低，通常导致心力衰竭。为了减少或消除瘢痕形成，人们对MI后早期引入LV受影响区域的修复性生物材料（如细胞和蛋白质）越来越感兴趣。我们相信，这种方法最终将成为护理标准的一部分。最有前途的途径，为这些材料的交付是直接左心室注射（DLVI）。到目前为止，DLVI的实用性受到缺乏受影响组织的精确空间靶向方法的阻碍。这极大地阻碍了有希望的材料的临床翻译。这个项目的目标是设计尖端的成像工具，使用MRI可视化梗死区域。

Myocardial infarction (MI) afflicts more than one million persons per year in the United States alone. MI results in permanent left ventricle (LV) scarring that causes diminished pump efficiency and, commonly, heart failure. Towards reduction or elimination of scarring, there is increasing interest in reparative biological materials, such as cells and proteins, that are introduced into the affected region of the LV early after MI. We believe that such an approach will eventually become part of a standard of care. The most promising route for the delivery of such materials is direct LV injection (DLVI). Thus far, the utility of DLVI has been hampered by the lack methods for accurate spatial targeting of affected tissue. This has greatly impeded clinical translation of promising materials. The goal of this project is to devise cutting edge imaging tools to visualize infarcted regions using MRI.