Evaluation of contrast wash-in and peak enhancement in adenosine first pass perfusion CMR in patients post bypass surgery.

Background: Adenosine first pass perfusion cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) yields excellent results for the detection of significant coronary artery disease (CAD). In patients with coronary artery bypass grafts (CABG) the kinetics of a contrast bolus may by altered only due to different distances through the bypass grafts compared to native vessels, thereby possibly imitating a perfusion defect. The aim of the study was to evaluate semiquantitative perfusion parameters in order to assess possible differences in epicardial contrast kinetics in areas supplied by native coronaries and CABG, both without significant stenosis.

Magnetic resonance adenosine perfusion imaging in patients after coronary artery bypass graft surgery.

Objectives: The aim of the study was to evaluate the feasibility and diagnostic performance of the combination of adenosine stress perfusion and late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) in patients after coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG).

Background: Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging allows the detection of significant coronary artery disease by adenosine stress perfusion and infarct imaging. Myocardial contrast kinetics may be altered in patients after CABG owing to more complex myocardial perfusion and different distances of the contrast bolus through different bypasses and native coronary vessels.

A decade of percutaneous coronary interventions in cardiac transplant recipients: a monocentric study in 160 patients.

Background: Transplant vasculopathy is a long-term complication of cardiac transplantation. Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PCI) is a method of choice for local revascularization that is also increasingly used in heart transplant patients.

Methods: Between October 1989 and November 2006, 160 adult cardiac transplant recipients (19 women) with mean age at heart transplantation of 47 +/- 12 years underwent PCI in 502 coronary segments during 319 catheterizations (balloon only, 209; bare metal stents, 227, drug-eluting stents, 66).

Intravascular ultrasound assessment of longitudinal plaque distribution patterns in patients with angiographically silent coronary artery disease after heart transplantation.

Aims: The purpose of this three-dimensional intracoronary ultrasound (ICUS) study was to assess longitudinal plaque distribution patterns in patients with angiographically silent coronary artery disease (CAD) after heart transplantation (HTX).

Methods And Results: Out of 334 patients without diameter stenosis >/=25% determined by coronary angiography, 321 underwent successful three-dimensional ICUS (30 MHz) of the left main coronary artery (LMCA) and all segments of the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD). Early plaque formation was found in 296 patients (92.