Accelerated fatty acid composition MRI of epicardial adipose tissue: Development and application to eplerenone treatment in a mouse model of obesity‐induced coronary microvascular disease

PURPOSE: To develop an accelerated MRI method to quantify the epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) fatty acid composition (FAC) and test the hypothesis that eplerenone (EPL) shifts the EAT FAC toward unsaturation in obese mice. METHODS: Undersampled multi‐echo gradient echo imaging employing a dictionary‐based compressed‐sensing reconstruction and iterative decomposition with echo asymmetry and least‐squares–based mapping (IDEAL) was developed, validated, and used to study EAT in obese mice scanned at 7T. Fully sampled and rate 2, 2.5, 3, and 3.5 undersampled image data were acquired, reconstructed, and assessed using RMSE and structural similarity (SSIM). Two groups of mice were studied: untreated (control, n = 10) and EPL‐treated (n = 10) mice fed a high‐fat high‐sucrose diet. MRI included imaging of EAT FAC, EAT volume, and myocardial perfusion reserve. RESULTS: Rate 3 acceleration provided RMSE <5% and structural similarity >0.85 for FAC MRI. After 6 weeks of diet, EPL‐treated compared to untreated mice had a reduced EAT saturated fatty acid fraction (0.27 ± 0.09 vs. 0.39 ± 0.07, P < 0.05) and increased EAT unsaturation degree (4.37 ± 0.32 vs. 3.69 ± 0.58, P < 0.05). Also, EAT volume in EPL‐treated compared to untreated mice was reduced (8.1 ± 0.6 mg vs. 11.4 ± 0.7 mg, P < 0.01), and myocardial perfusion reserve was improved (1.83 ± 0.15 vs. 1.61 ± 0.17, P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Rate 3 accelerated FAC MRI enabled accurate quantification of EAT FAC in mice. EPL treatment shifted the EAT FAC toward increased unsaturation and was associated with improvement of coronary microvascular function.