Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed with a 1.5 Tesla MR scanner (Genesis Sigma CVI; GE Healthcare, Solingen, Germany). The MRI investigation of the animals took place under general anesthesia 3 months following surgery and immediately prior to scheduled euthanasia. Before the MRI examination, anesthesia of the animals was induced with ketamin (20 mg/kg body weight i.m., B. Braun) and propofol (propofol-lipuro 1%, 4–6 mg/kg body weight, i. v.; B. Braun, Melsungen, Germany) and maintained after that with inhalative 2% isoflurane in oxygen.
Cardiac MRI was done using a four-element phased array receiver coil. ECG gated, breath-hold balanced steady-state free precession gradient echo sequence (FIESTA) in the short-axis view were used for the quantitative evaluation of left ventricular volumes and function. Additionally, late enhancement imaging was performed using a T1-weighted inversion recovery gradient echo of a series of short axes. For quantitative analysis, endocardial and epicardial contours were traced manually in all end-systolic and end-diastolic short-axis slices between the atrioventricular plane and the apex of the heart using cvi42 software version 4.1 (Circle Cardiovascular Imaging Inc., Calgary, AB, Canada).
Cardiac MRI was done using a four-element phased array receiver coil. ECG gated, breath-hold balanced steady-state free precession gradient echo sequence (FIESTA) in the short-axis view were used for the quantitative evaluation of left ventricular volumes and function. Additionally, late enhancement imaging was performed using a T1-weighted inversion recovery gradient echo of a series of short axes. For quantitative analysis, endocardial and epicardial contours were traced manually in all end-systolic and end-diastolic short-axis slices between the atrioventricular plane and the apex of the heart using cvi42 software version 4.1 (Circle Cardiovascular Imaging Inc., Calgary, AB, Canada).