Background: Assessing left ventricle (LV) cardiac contractile function is a good indicator of overall heart health and is used to determine which patients are good candidates for revascularization surgery. With over 3 million new coronary artery disease patients annually and over 1 million annual revascularization surgeries in the US, there is need for an improved, non-invasive technique to quantitatively assess LV contractile function.
Technology Description: A team led by Dr. Michael Pasque has developed cardiac MRI-based multiparametric strain analysis techniques to provide quantitative assessments of LV contractile function. The patented techniques and Normal Human Strain Database may be used as a screening mechanism to non-invasively assess heart function or to assess cardiac tissue viability to inform revascularization surgeries.
Key Advantages:
- Uses non-invasive MRI imaging to assess heart function
- Provides an objective, quantitative measure of LV contractile function
- Provides localized information
Publications:
‘Quantifying “normalized” regional left ventricular contractile function in ischemic coronary artery disease’; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtcvs.2015.03.049
‘Three‐dimensional regional strain computation method with displacement encoding with stimulated echoes (DENSE) in non‐ischemic, non‐valvular dilated cardiomyopathy patients and healthy subjects validated by tagged MRI’; https://doi.org/10.1002/jmri.24576
‘Regional Myocardial Contractile Function: Multiparametric Strain Mapping’; https://doi.org/10.1510/icvts.2009.220384
‘Dilated Cardiomyopathy: Normalized Multiparametric Myocardial Strain Predicts Contractile Recovery’; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.athoracsur.2015.04.025
Patents: Issued US patent 9,176,211, Method for quantitatively mapping myocardial contractile function with magnetic resonance based multiparametric strain analysis
Pending US patent 15/520,991, Systems and methods for measuring cardiac strain
Lead Inventor: Michael K. Pasque, MD, Professor of Surgery, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery; and Cardiovascular Division, Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis.
