Lin Kai, Lloyd-Jones Donald M, Taimen Kirsi, Liu Ying, Bi Xiaoming, Li Debiao, Carr James C
Department of Radiology, Northwestern University, 737 N Michigan Avenue, Suite 1600, Chicago, IL 60611, United States.
Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University, 680 N Lake Shore Drive, Suite 1400, Chicago, IL 60611, United States.
Eur J Radiol. 2014 Aug;83(8):1402-7. doi: 10.1016/j.ejrad.2014.05.028. Epub 2014 May 29.
To test the hypothesis that biomechanical changes are quantitatively related to morphological features of coronary arteries in heart transplant (HTx) recipients.
With IRB approval, three-dimensional (3D) magnetic resonance (MR) angiography and two-dimensional (2D) black-blood stead-state free precession (SSFP) MR imaging were performed to image coronary arteries of 36 HTx patients. Contours of coronary wall were manually drawn. For each coronary segment, coronary wall thickness, wall area, lumen area (in systole and diastole) were acquired. Coronary distensibility index (CDI) and the percent of the coronary wall occupying the vessel area (PWOV) were calculated.
There are totally 98 coronary segments eligible for quantitative analysis from 27 HTx patients. The CDI is 4.90 ± 2.44 mmHg(-1). The mean wall thickness is 1.49 ± 0.24 mm and the PWOV is 74.6% ± 7.5%. CDI has moderate correlations with wall thickness (r=-0.531, P<0.001) and with PWOV (R=-0.435, P<0.001).
Detected with coronary MR imaging, CDI is quantitatively correlated with the morphological features of the coronary artery in HTx patients. Coronary stiffness has the potential to become an alternative imaging biomarker for the quantitative assessment of the status of cardiac allografts.
检验心脏移植（HTx）受者的生物力学变化与冠状动脉形态特征存在定量关系这一假设。
经机构审查委员会（IRB）批准，对36例HTx患者的冠状动脉进行三维（3D）磁共振（MR）血管造影和二维（2D）黑血稳态自由进动（SSFP）MR成像。手动绘制冠状动脉壁轮廓。对于每个冠状动脉节段，获取冠状动脉壁厚度、壁面积、管腔面积（收缩期和舒张期）。计算冠状动脉扩张性指数（CDI）和冠状动脉壁占据血管面积的百分比（PWOV）。
27例HTx患者共有98个冠状动脉节段符合定量分析要求。CDI为4.90±2.44 mmHg⁻¹。平均壁厚度为1.49±0.24 mm，PWOV为74.6%±7.5%。CDI与壁厚度（r = -0.531，P < 0.001）和PWOV（R = -0.435，P < 0.001）具有中度相关性。
通过冠状动脉MR成像检测，CDI与HTx患者冠状动脉的形态特征存在定量相关性。冠状动脉硬度有可能成为定量评估心脏移植物状态的替代成像生物标志物。
