Validating Novel, Non-contrast Cardiac MRI Imaging in Haemodialysis Patients

"A non-contrast cardiac MRI (CMR) scan at 3-Tesla platform (Skyra, Siemens Medical Imaging, Erlangen, Germany).~This non-contrast CMR scan will principally determine: Left ventricular (LV) mass and volumes/ejection fraction and; fibrosis using T1 mapping."

Assessments will include: LV size and function as per the American Society of Echocardiography guidelines. In addition specific focus will be paid end-diastolic integrated backscatter measurements.

A limited post-mortem will be performed to retrieve patients' hearts for preparation and storage at St George's University, London where direct comparison will be made between levels of scarring seen directly under the microscope between that on the MRI scans.

Attach continuous Holter monitor (Schiller, medilog®AR12 plus/AR4 plus/FD5 plus, Baar, Switzerland) that will start before dialysis and terminate just before the subsequent dialysis treatment 48h later.

Collect blood samples from the arterial needle before dialysis. Approximately 30 millilitres of blood will be collected and then be pipetted into cryotubes and frozen at -80°C in an electronically monitored freezer for analysis in batches throughout the study. These samples will be used to investigate the relationship between circulating biomarkers of fibrosis, the MRI scans and the histological samples.