Define early myocardial metabolic changes among patients with obesity and heart failure, and to describe noninvasive methods and their applications for imaging cardiac metabolic remodeling.

Metabolic remodeling precedes, triggers, and sustains functional and structural remodeling in the stressed heart. Alterations in cardiac metabolism can be assessed by using a variety of molecular probes. The glucose tracer analog, ¹⁸F-FDG, and the labeled tracer ¹¹C-palmitate are still the most commonly used tracers to assess glucose and fatty acid metabolism, respectively. The development of new tracer analogs and imaging agents, including those targeting the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR), provides new opportunities for imaging metabolic activities at a molecular level. While the use of cardiac magnetic resonance spectroscopy in the clinical setting is limited to the assessment of intramyocardial and epicardial fat, new technical improvements are likely to increase its usage in the setting of heart failure.

Noninvasive imaging methods are an effective tool for the serial assessment of alterations in cardiac metabolism, either during disease progression, or in response to treatment.