Improvement of regional and global left ventricular function in magnetic resonance imaging after recanalization of true coronary chronic total occlusions.

Background: Successful recanalization of true chronic total occlusion (CTO) has been linked to a decrease in cardiac mortality. We evaluated the effect of CTO recanalization on LVEF and regional wall motion using paired cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (cMRI) studies.

Methods And Results: 43 patients underwent contrast enhanced cMRI prior to and 9 months after successful recanalization of a true CTO defined as thrombolysis in myocardial infarction flow 0 and duration of occlusion of more than 3 months.