Microvascular obstruction and myocardial function after acute myocardial infarction: Assessment by using contrast-enhanced cine MR imaging

This study was approved by the Human Investigation Committee of William Beaumont Hospital, and all patients gave informed consent. The purpose of this study was to prospectively compare contrast material - enhanced cine magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with more-standard MR imaging for the evaluation of microvascular obstruction and myocardial function in 80 patients ( 56 men, 24 women; mean age, 57 years; range, 29 - 80 years) with acute myocardial infarction after reperfusion therapy. Findings at contrast-enhanced cine MR imaging agreed with the global and transmural extent of microvascular obstruction at first-pass perfusion (intraclass correlation coefficient [IC] of 0.96 [P <.001] and 0.88 [ P <.001], respectively) and inversion-recovery gradient-echo ( IC of 0.90 [P <.001] and 0.93 [P <.001], respectively) MR imaging. There was no significant difference between myocardial function parameters before and after contrast material enhancement. Contrast-enhanced cine MR imaging reduced imaging time by 34% ( 11 of 32 minutes) and improved spatial resolution.