What is myocardial enhancement?

Delayed myocardial enhancement, as seen on cardiac MRI, occurs when gadolinium contrast material seeps into fibrotic or necrotic myocardial tissue. It is due to a number of etiologies, and has variable appearances. subendocardial enhancement indicates an ischemic etiology.

What does gadolinium enhancement mean?

Late gadolinium enhancement is a technique used in cardiac MRI for cardiac tissue characterization, in particular, the assessment of regional scar formation and myocardial fibrosis 1-5.

What does the delayed enhancement indicate on the cardiac MRI?

Delayed enhancement identifies infarction or fibrotic tissue, while absence of enhancement indicates viable myocardium likely to improve following revascularization [11]. The pattern of the delayed enhancement will reflect the vascular distribution of the affected vascular territory.

Is myocardial damage reversible?

Myocardial stunning occurs when myocytes injury is reversible and the cells have no structural damage; it can last for various periods of time after the restoration of normal blood flow.

What is infiltrative cardiomyopathy?

Infiltrative cardiomyopathy (ICM) refers to a heterogeneous group of myocardial disorders mainly cardiac amyloidosis, sarcoidosis, and hemochromatosis with characteristic deposition of abnormal substances within cellular and intercellular spaces, which leads to the development of ventricular diastolic dysfunction.

When do you order MRI with gadolinium?

MRI contrast is required when a very detailed image is necessary to evaluate the problem area of the body. Gadolinium contrast is used in about one in three MRI scans, to improve the diagnostic accuracy of the scan.

What is MRI cardiac myocardial viability?

As opposed to nuclear methods, viability assessment by MRI is a nonstress examination that provides high-resolution detail, including functional assessment of the left ventricle in approximately 30 minutes. Assessment of myocardial viability is performed using 5- to 20-minute delayed, gadolinium-enhanced MRI.

Why do we see delayed enhancement in myocardial thickening?

Delayed myocardial enhancement may also be observed, probably reflecting accumulation of gadolinium as a result of differences in contrast agent distribution volume (,Fig 9). Focal myocardial thickening is often seen because of the edema, a feature that can mimic hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or a cardiac mass (,18).

How does delayed enhancement MR imaging help patients?

Delayed myocardial enhancement cardiac MR imaging is a reliable tool for assessing chronic and acute myocardial infarction and predicting patient outcome after myocardial infarction treatment.

What are dark spots on myocardial multidetector CT?

The dark spots indicate regions of the heart muscle that had reduced blood flow because of the heart attack. “Our main conclusion is that in heart attack patients, early myocardial enhancement defects on cardiac multidetector CT, are valuable predictors of future myocardial viability,” said Dr. Ghersin.

What happens to contractile function after cardiac MR imaging?

In general, myocardial scar or fibrosis involving more than 50% of myocardial wall thickness at cardiac MR imaging is unlikely to recover contractile function following coronary revascularization (, 6 ). In acute myocardial infarction, there is loss of integrity of myocyte cellular membranes.

What is myocardial enhancement? Delayed myocardial enhancement, as seen on cardiac MRI, occurs when gadolinium contrast material seeps into fibrotic or necrotic myocardial tissue. It is due to a number of etiologies, and has variable appearances. subendocardial enhancement indicates an ischemic etiology. What does gadolinium enhancement mean? Late gadolinium enhancement is a technique used in…