Figure 2
Histology and UTE results in canine heart tissue. (a) Histological slice of heart tissue, stained with Picrosirius Red. The 781.2 μm x 781.2 μm region-of-interest (ROI) used for analysis is delineated. The collagen area fraction in the ROI was determined to be 4 ± 2 %, based on a pixel threshold algorithm. (b) Corresponding UTE MR image at TE = 0.02 ms, with the ROI delineated. (c) T2* decay within the ROI. T2*long denotes the long T2* of cardiac muscle. TEs ≤ 2 ms were finely sampled to determine the collagen T2* and resonance frequency, where the T2* model is accurate. Based on the calibration plot in Figure 1a, the collagen signal fraction of 1.2 ± 0.2 % was equivalent to a collagen concentration of 2.3 ± 0.9 %. Hence, there was agreement between the collagen area fraction determined from histology (4 ± 2 %) and the collagen concentration.