Late cardiac remodeling after primary percutaneous coronary intervention-five-year cardiac magnetic resonance imaging follow-up.

Background: Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) preserves function and improves survival. The late effects of PPCI on left ventricular remodeling, however, have not yet been investigated on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMRI).

Methods And Results: Twenty-five patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) treated with PPCI underwent CMRI within 10 days, at 4 months and at 5 years.

Different algorithms for quantitative analysis of myocardial infarction with DE MRI: comparison with autopsy specimen measurements.

Rationale And Objectives: To compare two semiautomated methods for measurement of infarcted myocardium area on delayed contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging, with histopathology findings as standard of reference.

Materials And Methods: Percentage area of myocardial infarction was measured in 10 Yorkshire landrace pigs manually and using two semiautomated methods. The first (standard deviation method) used two operator-selected regions of interest (ROIs) and nine different cutoff values (one to nine times the standard deviation of signal intensity in normal myocardium) to identify infarction.

Computed tomography unmasks a phantom tumour.

We describe a patient with left sided congestive heart failure and a round-shaped mass on the chest X-ray. Using computed tomography, the mass is diagnosed as a phantom tumour consisting of loculated effusion in the interlobular fissure that vanishes after treatment for heart failure is initiated.

Accurate automatic papillary muscle identification for quantitative left ventricle mass measurements in cardiac magnetic resonance imaging.

Rationale And Objectives: We sought to evaluate the automatic detection of the papillary muscle and to determine its influence on quantitative left ventricular (LV) mass assessment.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-eight Yorkshire-Landrace swine and 10 volunteers underwent cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) of the left ventricle. The variability in measurements of LV papillary muscles traced automatically and manually were compared to intra- and interobserver variabilities.

Evaluation of left ventricular function three years after percutaneous recanalization of chronic total coronary occlusions.

We investigated early and late effects of percutaneous revascularization for chronic total coronary occlusion on left ventricular (LV) function and volumes. Magnetic resonance imaging was performed in 21 patients before and 5 months and 3 years after recanalization. Global LV function and volumes and segmental wall thickening (SWT) were quantified on cine images.

Addition of the long-axis information to short-axis contours reduces interstudy variability of left-ventricular analysis in cardiac magnetic resonance studies.

Objectives: To reduce interstudy variability using long-axis information for correcting short-axis (SA) contours at basal and apical level for left-ventricular analysis by magnetic resonance imaging.

Materials And Methods: A total of 20 patients with documented heart failure and 20 volunteers underwent magnetic resonance imaging examination twice for measuring endocardial end-diastolic volume, endocardial end-systolic volume, mass, and ejection fraction. The boundary of the left ventricle, the mitral valve plane, and apex were marked manually on the 2- and 4-chamber long-axis images.

A comparison between QLAB and TomTec full volume reconstruction for real time three-dimensional echocardiographic quantification of left ventricular volumes.

Objectives: To compare the interobserver variability and accuracy of two different real time three-dimensional echocardiography (RT3DE) analyzing programs.

Methods: Forty-one patients (mean age 56 +/- 11 years, 28 men) in sinus rhythm with a cardiomyopathy and adequate 2D image quality underwent RT3DE and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) within one day. Off-line left ventricular (LV) volume analysis was performed with QLAB V4.

Adjunctive value of CT coronary angiography in the diagnostic work-up of patients with typical angina pectoris.

Aims: To determine the adjunctive value of CT coronary angiography (CTCA) in the diagnostic work-up of patients with typical angina pectoris.

Methods And Results: CTCA was performed in 62 consecutive patients (45 male, mean age 58.8 +/- 7.

Intracoronary delivery of umbilical cord blood derived unrestricted somatic stem cells is not suitable to improve LV function after myocardial infarction in swine.

Regeneration of infarcted myocardium by injecting stem cells has been proposed to prevent heart failure. We studied the i.c.

Non-invasive visualization of coronary atherosclerosis: state-of-art.

Coronary artery disease remains the leading cause of death in the Western world. Non-invasive coronary artery imaging challenges any diagnostic modality because the coronary arteries are small and tortuous, whereas cardiac contraction and respiration cause motion artifacts. Therefore, non-invasive coronary imaging requires high spatial and temporal resolution.

Assessment of acute reperfused myocardial infarction with delayed enhancement 64-MDCT.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the utility of delayed enhancement 64-MDCT in the assessment of myocardial infarct size in a porcine model of acute reperfused myocardial infarction. CT can be used for noninvasive assessment of coronary artery stenosis, but to our knowledge, evaluation of myocardial viability in the subacute phase of acute myocardial infarction has not been validated. We performed delayed enhancement imaging on six domestic swine 5 days after reperfused acute myocardial infarction and assessed the relation between delayed enhancement patterns in vivo and the extent of viable and nonviable myocardium at postmortem histochemical analysis.

Reduction in infarct size, but no functional improvement after bone marrow cell administration in a porcine model of reperfused myocardial infarction.

Aims: Stem cell therapy after myocardial infarction (MI) has been studied in models of permanent coronary occlusion. We studied the effect of intracoronary administration of unselected bone marrow (BM) and mononuclear cells (MNC) in a porcine model of reperfused MI.

Methods And Results: In 34 swine, the left circumflex coronary artery was balloon-occluded for 2 h followed by reperfusion.

Multislice computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging for the assessment of reperfused acute myocardial infarction.

Objectives: We evaluated the accuracy of in vivo delayed-enhancement multislice computed tomography (DE-MSCT) and delayed-enhancement magnetic resonance imaging (DE-MRI) for the assessment of myocardial infarct size using postmortem triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) pathology as standard of reference.

Background: The diagnostic value of DE-MSCT for the assessment of acute reperfused myocardial infarction is currently unclear.

Methods: In 10 domestic pigs (25 to 30 kg), the circumflex coronary artery was balloon-occluded for 2 h followed by reperfusion.

Automatic quantitative left ventricular analysis of cine MR images by using three-dimensional information for contour detection.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate an automatic boundary detection algorithm of the left ventricle on magnetic resonance (MR) short-axis images with the essential restriction of no manual corrections. The study comprised 13 patients (nine men, four women) and 12 healthy volunteers (11 men, one woman), and institutional review board approval and informed consent were obtained. The outline of the left ventricle was indicated manually on horizontal and vertical long-axis MR images.

Magnetic resonance imaging of haemorrhage within reperfused myocardial infarcts: possible interference with iron oxide-labelled cell tracking?

Aims: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been proposed as a tool to track iron oxide-labelled cells within myocardial infarction (MI). However, infarct reperfusion aggravates microvascular obstruction (MO) and causes haemorrhage. We hypothesized that haemorrhagic MI causes magnetic susceptibility-induced signal voids that may interfere with iron oxide-labelled cell detection.

Improving diagnostic accuracy of MDCT coronary angiography in patients with mild heart rhythm irregularities using ECG editing.

Objective: The objective of our study was to compare diagnostic accuracy of MDCT coronary angiography in a population of patients with mild heart rhythm irregularities before and after editing the ECG.

Subjects And Methods: Thirty-eight patients who underwent MDCT coronary angiography and conventional coronary angiography were enrolled in the study. The inclusion criterion was the presence of mild heart rhythm irregularities (i.

Prediction of left ventricular function after drug-eluting stent implantation for chronic total coronary occlusions.

Objectives: We studied the effect of drug-eluting stent implantation for chronic total coronary occlusion (CTO) on left ventricular volumes and function and assessed the predictive value of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) performed before revascularization.

Background: The effect of recanalization of CTO on long-term left ventricular function and the value of myocardial viability assessment with MRI is incompletely understood.

Methods: Twenty-seven patients underwent contrast-enhanced MRI before and five months after successful drug-eluting stent implantation for CTO.

Comparison between contrast echocardiography and magnetic resonance imaging to predict improvement of myocardial function after primary coronary intervention.

The relative merits of myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to predict myocardial function improvement after percutaneous coronary intervention have not been evaluated until now. We studied 35 consecutive patients with acute myocardial infarction who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention using MCE and MRI and first-pass imaging for evaluation of myocardial perfusion. Delayed-enhanced MRI was included as another method to differentiate viable from infarcted tissue.

Effects of primary angioplasty for acute myocardial infarction on early and late infarct size and left ventricular wall characteristics.

Unlabelled: The effects of reperfusion on early and late infarct size and left ventricular wall characteristics were studied by performing cine-magnetic resonance imaging, first-pass perfusion, and delayed enhancement imaging in 22 patients at five days and five months after successful primary angioplasty for first acute myocardial infarction. Infarct size, end-diastolic wall thickness, and segmental wall thickening were quantified, and the extent of microvascular obstruction (MO) was evaluated qualitatively. Infarct size decreased by 31%.

Chronic pseudoaneurysm of the left ventricle.

We present a case of a 55-year-old men who suffered a silent myocardial infarction four years earlier and presented with exertional dyspnoea. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) and Multislice computed tomography (MSCT) was performed and revealed a giant pseudoaneursym of the lateral wall of the left ventricle with the presence of a thrombus in the lateral wall of the pseudoaneursym. We present this case since excellent non-invasive evaluation of the pseudoaneursym was feasible using state-of-the-art imaging modalities.

Diagnostic accuracy of non-invasive 64-slice CT coronary angiography in patients with stable angina pectoris.

Multislice computed tomography (CT) is an emerging technique for the non-invasive detection of coronary stenoses. While the diagnostic accuracy of 4-slice scanners was limited, 16-slice CT imagers showed promising results due to increased temporal and spatial resolution. These technical advances prompted us to evaluate the diagnostic performance of 64-slice CT coronary angiography in the detection of significant stenoses (defined as > or = 50% luminal diameter reduction) versus invasive quantitative coronary angiography (QCA).

High-resolution spiral computed tomography coronary angiography in patients referred for diagnostic conventional coronary angiography.

Background: The diagnostic performance of the latest 64-slice CT scanner, with increased temporal (165 ms) and spatial (0.4 mm3) resolution, to detect significant stenoses in the clinically relevant coronary tree is unknown.

Methods And Results: We studied 52 patients (34 men; mean age, 59.