Introduction Our CMR group at MUSC is part of the Division of Cardiovascular Imaging of the Department of Radiology and Radiological Science in Charleston, SC. The group was established in 2004 and relocated to the newly constructed Ashley River Tower in 2007. Our continuously growing team includes radiologists, cardiologists, resident physicians, research fellows and students as well as research scientists from all over the world. Many of our members are active participants at the SCMR annual meetings. Our collaborative research efforts are dedicated to the development of cutting-edge technologies optimizing imaging in clinical routine. We use the newest generation of scanners to provide state-of-the-art examinations to achieve the highest level of patient satisfaction. Our projects range from single-center evaluation of emerging technologies to multi-center outcome and metadata analysis.

Contact: Akos Varga-Szemes (vargaasz@musc.edu)

Major Research Milestones and Collaboration Partners

CMR in 20 Years We have witnessed the widespread growth of clinical CMR over the past years. There have been significant technological improvements in CMR; however, the field still faces many challenges that have prompted the development of a variety of novel CMR techniques. The increased need for the assessment of subtle myocardial changes, coronary artery anatomy, hemodynamics etc. lead to the development of new technologies with potential clinical application such as T1/ECV mapping, QISS, 4D-flow, UTE, advanced motion correction/self-navigation, compressed sensing, PETRA as well as many others. While some of these are still prototypes, some have already been released as products. We look forward to the coming years when the CMR community will compile the necessary evidence to implement these new technologies in our clinical protocols. In 20 years, we imagine CMR as substantially less user-dependent, close to fully automated, practically free-breathing, and significantly faster; a so called “push button” type of imaging. However, the ultimate goals for the next two decades are to expand the availability and utilization of CMR and to establish new evidence-based clinical indications in order to make CMR a dominant player in the imaging arena.

References 1. Suranyi P et al. Percent infarct mapping: an R1-map-based CE-MRI method for determining myocardial viability distribution.

Magn Reson Med. 2006 Sep;56(3):535-45. 2. Varga-Szemes A et al. Myocardial Late Gadolinium Enhancement: Accuracy of T1 Mapping-based Synthetic Inversion-Recovery

Imaging. Radiology 2016;278(2):374-382. 3. Ruzsics B et al. Head-to-head comparison between delayed enhancement and percent infarct mapping for assessment of

myocardial infarct size in a canine model. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2008 Dec;28(6):1386-92. 4. Renker M et al. A Non-Contrast, Self-Navigated 3-Dimensional MR Technique for Aortic Root and Vascular Access Route

Assessment in the Context of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement: Proof of Concept. Eur Radiol 2016;26(4):951-8. 5. Work in progress 6. Varga-Szemes A et al. Accuracy of Non-contrast Quiescent-Interval Single-Shot (QISS) Lower Extremity MR Angiography versus CT

Angiography for Diagnosis of Peripheral Artery Disease: Comparison with Digital Subtraction Angiography. JACC Imaging [In press]

7. Muscogiuri G et al. Image quality and accuracy of a 3D whole-heart self-navigated sequence in comparison with cardiac computed tomography for the assessment of coronary artery anomalies. Proc Intl Soc Mag Reson Med 2015;23:4506.

8. Muscogiuri G et al. T(Rho) and magnetization transfer and INvErsion recovery (TRAMINER)-prepared imaging: A novel contrast-enhanced flow-independent dark-blood technique for the evaluation of myocardial late gadolinium enhancement in patients with myocardial infarction. J Magn Reson Imaging 2016 [Epub ahead of print]

9. Work in progress

Semmelweis University

Budapest, Hungary Dr. Pal Maurovich-Horvat

Dr. Bela Merkely

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Birmingham, AL, USA Dr. Gabriel A. Elgavish

Dr. Tamas Simor Dr. Levente Toth

Dr. Pal Kiss

Duke University Durham, NC, USA

Dr. Wolfgang G. Rehwald

University Hospital of Lausanne

Lausanne, Switzerland Dr. Matthias Stuber

Dr. Davide Piccini

Leiden University Medical Center

Leiden, Netherlands Dr. Rob J. van der Geest

MUSC Division of Cardiology

Charleston, SC, USA Dr. Thomas M. Todoran

Dr. David Gregg, IV Dr. Richard R. Bayer 2nd Dr. Daniel H. Steinberg

Dr. Michael Zile

University of Rome Sapienza

Rome, Italy Dr. Giuseppe Muscogiuri

University of Groningen

Groningen, Netherlands Dr. Rozemarijn Vliegenthart

Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen

Hospitals Liverpool, UK

Dr. Balazs Ruzsics

University Hospital Frankfurt

Frankfurt, Germany Dr. Moritz Albrecht Dr. Matthias Renker Dr. Julian Wichmann

MUSC Division of

Cardiovascular Imaging

MUSC Department of Pediatrics

Charleston, SC, USA Dr. Anthony M. Hlavacek

Dr. Arni Nutting

MUSC Division of

Cardiothoracic Surgery Charleston, SC, USA

Dr. Rupak D. Mukherjee Dr. Jeffrey A. Jones

Dr. Jean Marie Ruddy

1. Percent Infarct Mapping

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9 2. Synthetic IR Imaging for LGE 3. T1-based Infarct Quantification

4. NC-MRA for TAVR Planning 5. WSS in Aortic Aneurysm

6. QISS for Peripheral Arteries 7. Pediatric Coronary NC-MRA

8. Dark Blood LGE Imaging 9. Myocardial Strain

Faculty Members Akos Varga-Szemes

MD, PhD Assistant Professor

Director of CMR Research

U. Joseph Schoepf MD

Professor Division Director

Carlo N. De Cecco MD, PhD Assistant Professor Director of Cardiac CT Research

John Nance, Jr. MD Assistant Professor

Sheldon E. Litwin MD Professor Chair, CV Imaging (Cardiology)

Philip Costello MD Professor Chairman

Pal Suranyi MD, PhD

Associate Professor Director of CMR

Cardiothoracic Fellowship Director

Division of Cardiovascular Imaging, Department of Radiology and Radiological Science Medical University of South Carolina