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  • Review Article
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A guide for assessment of myocardial stiffness in health and disease

Nature Cardiovascular Research volume 1, pages 8–22 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Myocardial stiffness is an intrinsic property of the myocardium that influences both diastolic and systolic cardiac function. Myocardial stiffness represents the resistance of this tissue to being deformed and depends on intracellular components of the cardiomyocyte, particularly the cytoskeleton, and on extracellular components, such as collagen fibers. Myocardial disease is associated with changes in myocardial stiffness, and its assessment is a key diagnostic marker of acute or chronic pathological myocardial disease with the potential to guide therapeutic decision-making. In this Review, we appraise the different techniques that can be used to estimate myocardial stiffness, evaluate their advantages and disadvantages, and discuss potential clinical applications.

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Fig. 1: Stiffness in the cardiac cell and cytoskeleton.
Fig. 2: In vitro assessment of myocardial stiffness.
Fig. 3: In vivo assessment of the myocardial stiffness.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Cardiology, Department of Pediatrics, The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    José Carlos Villalobos Lizardi, Jerome Baranger, Minh B. Nguyen, Aimen Malik, Luc Mertens, Mark K. Friedberg & Olivier Villemain

  2. Laboratoire Matière et Systèmes Complexes, CNRS UMR 7057, Université de Paris, Paris, France

    Atef Asnacios

  3. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM), Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands

    Joost Lumens

  4. Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Craig A. Simmons

  5. Physics for Medicine Paris, INSERM U1273, ESPCI Paris, CNRS UMR 8063, PSL Research University, Paris, France

    Mathieu Pernot

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  1. José Carlos Villalobos Lizardi
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Contributions

J. C. V. L. made substantial contributions to the design of the work, drafted the work and substantively revised it; J. B. made substantial contributions to the conception of the work, drafted the work and contributed to its revision; M. B. N., A. A., A. M., J. L., L.M., M. K. F. and C. A. S. drafted the work; M. P. drafted the work and substantively revised it; O. V. made substantial contributions to the conception and design of the work, drafted the work and substantively revised it. All authors have approved the submitted version. All authors have agreed both to be personally accountable for the author’s own contributions and to ensure that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work, even ones in which the author was not personally involved, are appropriately investigated and resolved, with the resolution documented in the literature.

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Correspondence to Olivier Villemain.

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Nature Cardiovascular Research thanks Christopher Nguyen and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Villalobos Lizardi, J.C., Baranger, J., Nguyen, M.B. et al. A guide for assessment of myocardial stiffness in health and disease. Nat Cardiovasc Res 1, 8–22 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44161-021-00007-3

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