Early assessment of myocardial viability by the use of delayed enhancement computed tomography after primary percutaneous coronary intervention.

Objectives: We sought to explore the relationship between established parameters of reperfusion and the extent of myocardial damage measured by the delayed enhancement (DE) of iodinated contrast by multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) immediately after primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

Background: Early detection of myocardial viability should be valuable for risk stratification of patients with reperfused acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

Methods: Consecutive patients without a history of previous AMI who underwent primary PCI for an ST-segment elevation AMI were examined by DE-MDCT without an additional contrast injection immediately after completion of PCI.