The investigators looked at cardiac index, stroke volume index, myocardial strain, coronary artery flow and myocardial perfusion in a number of patients and found that all experienced segmental left ventricular dysfunction, in proportion to the amount of fluid that was removed from their body.

“Over the last 10 years or so, an increasing body of work has demonstrated how the stress that dialysis exerts on the circulation can result in reductions in blood flow to the heart muscle,” Dr. Nicholas Selby, an associate professor of nephrology at University of Nottingham told HCB News. “Previous work has mostly used echocardiography to detect this, but has limitations in terms of image quality and inability to directly measure several of the important changes. We therefore wanted to pursue the use of MR, despite the technical challenges, because MR is the only imaging modality that can provide a complete and simultaneous assessment of cardiac morphology, cardiac output, global/regional contractile function, fibrosis, coronary artery flow and contrast-free measurement of myocardial perfusion.”

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