rubidium-82 pet imaging is feasible in a rat myocardial infarction model

Small-animal myocardial infarct models are frequently used in the assessment of new cardioprotective strategies. a validated quantification of perfusion using a non-cyclotron-dependent pet tracer would be of importance in monitoring response to therapy. we tested whether myocardial pet perfusion imaging is feasible with rubidium-82 (82rb) in a small-animal scanner using a rat myocardial infarct model. 18 sprague-dawley rats underwent permanent coronary artery ligation (infarct group), and 11 rats underwent ischemia-reperfusion (reperfusion group) procedure. 82rb-pet and magnetic resonance imaging (mri) were conducted before and after the intervention. perfusion was compared to both left ventricle ejection fraction (lvef) and infarct size assessed by mri. follow-up global 82rb-uptake correlated significantly with infarct size (infarct group: r = −0.81, p < 0.001 and reperfusion group: r = −0.61, p = 0.04). only 82rb-uptake in the infarct group correlated with lvef. at follow-up, a higher segmental 82rb-uptake in the infarct group was associated with better wall motion (β = 0.034, ci [0.028;0.039], p < 0.001, r2 = 0.30), and inversely associated with scar transmurality (β = −2.4 [−2.6; −2.2], p < 0.001, r2 = 0.59). the associations were similar for the reperfusion group. 82rb-pet is feasible in small animal scanners despite the long positron range and enables fast and time-efficient myocardial perfusion imaging in rat models.