Determination of water compartments in rat myocardium using combined D–T1 and T1–T2 experiments

We have used combined D–T1 and T1–T2 correlation experiments to explore water compartments in rat heart tissue (myocardium). The results show that two main compartments can be identified, which we assign to extracellular (ec) and intracellular (ic) water. The exchange rate of water across the cell membrane was found to be on the order of 0.1 Hz. In addition, the T1–T2 correlation measurements indicate that the ic compartment contain two T2 populations.