The relation between hypointense core, microvascular obstruction and intramyocardial haemorrhage in acute reperfused myocardial infarction assessed by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging.

Background: Intramyocardial haemorrhage (IMH) and microvascular obstruction (MVO) represent reperfusion injury after reperfused ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) with prognostic impact and "hypointense core" (HIC) appearance in T2-weighted images. We aimed to distinguish between IMH and MVO by using T2 (*)-weighted cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) and analysed influencing factors for IMH development.

Methods And Results: A total of 151 patients with acute STEMI underwent CMR after primary angioplasty.