Novel strategy for measuring creatine kinase reaction rate in the in vivo heart

In the heart, the creatine kinase (CK) system plays an important role in the cascade of ATP production, transportation, and utilization. The forward pseudo-first-order rate constant for the CK reaction can be measured noninvasively by the ³¹P-magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy magnetization saturation transfer (MST) techniques. However, the measurement of MST in the in vivo heart is limited by the lengthy data acquisition time, especially for studies requiring spatial localization. This technical report presents a new method for measuring ATP production rate via CK that can reduce the MST data acquisition time by 82%. This method is validated using an in vivo pig model to evaluate the forward pseudo-first-order rate constant of myocardial CK reaction noninvasively.