Low Cost Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Compatible Stepper Exercise Device for Use in Cardiac Stress Tests

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. Many cardiovascular diseases are better diagnosed during a cardiac stress test. Current approaches include either exercise or pharmacological stress echocardiography and pharmacological stress magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MRI is the most accurate noninvasive method of assessing cardiac function. Currently there are very few exercise devices that allow collection of cardiovascular MRI data during exercise. We developed a low-cost exercise device that utilizes adjustable weight resistance and is compatible with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. It is equipped with electronics that measure power output. Our device allows subjects to exercise with a leg-stepping motion while their torso is in the MR imager. The device is easy to mount on the MRI table and can be adjusted for different body sizes. Pilot tests were conducted with 5 healthy subjects (3 male and 2 female, 29.2 ± 3.9 yr old) showing significant exercise-induced changes in heart rate (+42%), cardiac output (+40%) and mean pulmonary artery (PA) flow (+%49) post exercise. These data demonstrate that our MR compatible stepper exercise device successfully generated a hemodynamically stressed state while allowing for high quality imaging. The adjustable weight resistance allows exercise stress testing of subjects with variable exercise capacities. This low-cost device has the potential to be used in a variety of pathologies that require a cardiac stress test for diagnosis and assessment of disease progression

Non-invasive measurement using cardiovascular magnetic resonance of changes in pulmonary artery stiffness with exercise

BACKGROUND: Exercise stress tests are commonly used in clinical settings to monitor the functional state of the heart and vasculature. Large artery stiffness is one measure of arterial function that can be quantified noninvasively during exercise stress. Changes in proximal pulmonary artery stiffness are especially relevant to the progression of pulmonary hypertension (PH), since pulmonary artery (PA) stiffness is the best current predictor of mortality from right ventricular failure. METHODS: Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) was used to investigate the effect of exercise stress on PA pulse wave velocity (PWV) and relative area change (RAC), which are both non-invasive measures of PA stiffness, in healthy subjects. All 21 subjects (average age 26 ± 4 years; 13 female and 8 male) used a custom-made MR-compatible stepping device to exercise (two stages of mild-to-moderate exercise of 3–4 min duration each) in a supine position within the confines of the scanner. To measure the cross-sectional area and blood flow velocity in the main PA (MPA), two-dimensional phase-contrast (2D-PC) CMR images were acquired. To measure the reproducibility of metrics, CMR images were analyzed by two independent observers. Inter-observer agreements were calculated using the intraclass correlation and Bland-Altman analysis. RESULTS: From rest to the highest level of exercise, cardiac output increased from 5.9 ± 1.4 L/min to 8.2 ± 1.9 L/min (p < 0.05), MPA PWV increased from 1.6 ± 0.5 m/s to 3.6 ± 1.4 m/s (p < 0.05), and MPA RAC decreased from 0.34 ± 0.11 to 0.24 ± 0.1 (p < 0.05). While PWV also increased from the first to second exercise stage (from 2.7 ± 1.0 m/s to 3.6 ± 1.4 m/s, p < 0.05), there was no significant change in RAC between the two exercise stages. We found good inter-observer agreement for quantification of MPA flow, RAC and PWV. CONCLUSION: These results demonstrate that metrics of MPA stiffness increase in response to acute moderate exercise in healthy subjects and that CMR exercise stress offers great potential in clinical practice to noninvasively assess vascular function