# Push-Button Cardiac MRI for Non-Invasive Quantification of Myocardial Energy Consumption in Heart Failure

> **NIH NIH R01** · CEDARS-SINAI MEDICAL CENTER · 2022 · $784,897

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Cardiac Energy consumption is the central determinant of cardiac function. Its impairment is the
hallmark of heart failure (HF), which accounts for nearly $40 billion in medical costs every year
and is the most frequent cause of hospitalization. In HF pathophysiology, the depression of
contractile force of the myocardium is not matched by a concomitant depression of energy
consumption. This results in the uncoupling between mechanical contraction and energy
expenditure of the heart, which drives systolic or diastolic dysfunction of the heart. Thus, the
detection of early alterations in cardiac energetics in HF patients can provide critical information
on heart health and guide novel therapeutic interventions for HF which are under development.
Since the heart relies almost exclusively on aerobic oxidation, the gold standard for staging
alterations in cardiac energetics is from invasively measured whole heart myocardial oxygen
consumption (MVO2). However, invasive catheterization is not a practical way for repeat
surveillance of the disease in the suspect population or the monitoring of therapeutic efficacy.
Hence there is an unmet need for a noninvasive approach that can enable repeatable
quantitative assessment of cardiac energetics. Significant effort has been made towards
developing noninvasive techniques for MVO2 measurement, particularly based on positron
emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). However, they have
not made it into the clinical arena due to major technical/practical limitations. An alternative
approach, which overcomes key limitations of PET and longstanding technical challenges of
MRS for estimating MVO2, employs magnetic resonance oximetry. Nonetheless, this requires
simultaneous and reliable mapping of quantitative MR parameters in the rapidly moving
coronary sinus, which is nearly impossible for the CMR techniques today. Here, we propose to
develop and validate a single, fast, free-breathing, motion-insensitive acquisition to
simultaneously derive coronary sinus oxygen saturation and myocardial blood flow for MVO2
measurement. We will test the developed method in detecting the impaired cardiac energy
consumption level in an animal model with heart failure. The proposed method is expected to
quantify cardiac energy consumption noninvasively, without ionizing radiation, and exogenous
contrast agents. Accordingly, forming the foundation toward (1) early detection and classification
of HF for target treatments, (2) prognosis of HF without invasive procedures, and (3) longitudinal
monitoring of HF progression to guide the development of novel HF therapies.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10503631
- **Project number:** 1R01HL165211-01
- **Recipient organization:** CEDARS-SINAI MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Hsin-Jung Yang
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $784,897
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-08-15 → 2027-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10503631

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10503631, Push-Button Cardiac MRI for Non-Invasive Quantification of Myocardial Energy Consumption in Heart Failure (1R01HL165211-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10503631. Licensed CC0.

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