Michael Jerosch-Herold, PhD: Myocardial Tissue Characterization by Magnetic Resonance T1 Mapping

Michael Jerosch-Herold, PhD
Director of Cardiac Imaging Physics
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Associate Professor of Radiology
Harvard Medical School

Abstract

Myocardial T1 mapping provides novel biomarkers of adverse myocardial tissue remodeling that have proven valuable for risk stratification. Most applications focus on the native T1 and, if T1 is also measured after extracellular contrast administration, on the extracellular volume fraction (ECV). Changes in T1 and ECV have been related to changes in myocardial water-homeostasis, edema, and build-up of diffuse interstitial fibrosis. It is generally assumed that for pre- and post-contrast T1 measurements the water exchanges at a fast rate between interstitial and extracellular spaces. Novel insights can be gained by measuring myocardial T1 early after contrast administration when this assumption breaks down and myocardial T1 becomes sensitive to the intra-cellular lifetime of water. Specifically, we show how the intracellular lifetime of water provides a measure of changes in cardiomyocyte diameter, discuss the validation of this novel marker of cardiomyocyte size, and present some applications of this biomarker in patient populations suffering adverse myocardial tissue remodeling, e.g. after chemotherapy.

Short Bio

My undergraduate training is in Geophysics at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. I obtained my PhD is Solid State Physics in 1986 from Iowa State University, was a postdoc and lecturer at the Baylor College of Medicine (1986 – 1990), then a research fellow at Exxon Research & Development (1990-1993). Since 1993 I have held various academic positions at the University of Minnesota, Oregon Health & Science University, and finally HMS.