Kacira Ege, Oueis Mariam F, Tamimi Nawal H, Sturgill Sarah L, Xu Xianyao, Hund Thomas J, Ziolo Mark T, Han Yuchi, Deschênes Isabelle, Fu Ji-Dong
Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, The Dorothy M. Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute, Frick Center for Heart Failure and Arrhythmia, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
Departments of Internal Medicine and Biomedical Engineering, The Dorothy M. Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute, Frick Center for Heart Failure and Arrhythmia, Wexner Medical Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
Commun Med (Lond). 2025 Jul 31;5(1):325. doi: 10.1038/s43856-025-01036-w.
Transthoracic echocardiography remains the primary non-invasive method for assessing cardiac function in clinical practice. However, technical challenges in acquiring accurate apical 4-chamber-long-axis (A4CLAX) views have historically limited mouse studies to left ventricle (LV) assessment using parasternal short-axis (SAX) M-mode imaging.
To overcome this limitation, we developed an A4CLAX imaging approach for mice and performed a comparative analysis with established echocardiographic methods to assess cardiac function in healthy mouse hearts. To evaluate the utility of A4CLAX in detecting disease progression, we longitudinally monitored cardiac function of C57BL/6 N mice (male and female) following severe transverse aortic constriction (TAC), using both long-axis biplane (LAX-BP) and conventional SAX M-mode assays.
Here we show that LAX-BP echocardiography demonstrates volumetric accuracy comparable to cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) and detects significant LV functional decline within the first week post-TAC-changes that are not clearly captured by M-mode imaging. Importantly, A4CLAX further enables clinically relevant Doppler assessments, allowing detection of mitral valve regurgitation, restrictive filling patterns, and desynchronized valve motion. It also facilitates right ventricle (RV) functional evaluation and improved atrial visualization, revealing progressive enlargement of the left atrial (LA) and left atrial appendage (LAA) associated with worsening diastolic function.
The A4CLAX imaging approach provides clinically comparable, comprehensive echocardiographic evaluation in murine models and offers improved sensitivity for detecting subtle changes in cardiac performance during disease progression.
经胸超声心动图仍是临床实践中评估心脏功能的主要非侵入性方法。然而，获取准确的心尖四腔长轴（A4CLAX）视图的技术挑战历来限制了小鼠研究仅使用胸骨旁短轴（SAX）M型成像来评估左心室（LV）。
为克服这一限制，我们开发了一种用于小鼠的A4CLAX成像方法，并与既定的超声心动图方法进行了比较分析，以评估健康小鼠心脏的心脏功能。为评估A4CLAX在检测疾病进展中的效用，我们使用长轴双平面（LAX-BP）和传统SAX M型检测方法，纵向监测了严重主动脉缩窄（TAC）后C57BL/6 N小鼠（雄性和雌性）的心脏功能。
我们在此表明，LAX-BP超声心动图显示的容积准确性与心脏磁共振（CMR）相当，并在TAC后第一周内检测到左心室功能显著下降，而M型成像未清晰捕捉到这些变化。重要的是，A4CLAX还能进行临床相关的多普勒评估，可检测二尖瓣反流、限制性充盈模式和不同步的瓣膜运动。它还便于右心室（RV）功能评估并改善心房可视化，揭示与舒张功能恶化相关的左心房（LA）和左心耳（LAA）逐渐扩大。
A4CLAX成像方法在小鼠模型中提供了临床可比的、全面的超声心动图评估，并在疾病进展过程中检测心脏性能细微变化方面具有更高的敏感性。
