Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of rat ventricles following chronic hypoxia: a model of right ventricular hypertrophy.

Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy was used to study the effect of chronic hypoxia on both right (RV) and left ventricular and septal (LV + S) muscle. Rats in the hypoxic group, kept in a hypobaric chamber at 1/2 atm pressure for 2 weeks, developed right, but not left, ventricular hypertrophy (p less than 0.001). Tissues were studied within 2.5 h of return to air. T1 and T2 relaxation times of RV, LV + S and thigh muscle (Th) from hypoxic and control rats were compared. The T2 value distinguished hypoxic from control RV (p less than 0.002), but not hypoxic from control LV + S or Th, indicating that the change in relaxation time reflects cellular hypertrophy, and not hypoxemia. For hypoxic rats only the T2 value distinguished each muscle type: RV from LV + S (p less than 0.009), RV from Th (p less than 0.001) and LV + S from Th (p less than 0001). The T1 value did not identify either the hypoxic or control group or the type of muscle. Percent water content was similar for all tissues. For hypoxic RV, T2 correlated with the percent water content (r = 0.89; p less than 0.01). The sensitivity of T2 to the cellular changes associated with hypoxic RV hypertrophy could provide a means of detecting right ventricular hypertrophy.