New Magnetic Resonance Imaging techniques for Heart Attack patients

New magnetic resonance (MR) imaging techniques may have the potential to detect possible damage from a heart attack, providing physicians with information instrumental in treating individuals at high risk for a second attack.
Studies were released at the 72nd Scientific Sessions Conference of the American Heart Association in Atlanta. The work was conducted by a team of scientists from Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, in collaboration with Siemens Medical Systems, a leading developer, manufacturer and supplier of technologically advanced medical equipment and systems.
This method, dubbed MR Delayed Contrast Enhancement, uses MR imaging along with conventional contrast agents. Researchers studied the use of this method to determine tissue viability in heart attack patients. Clearly knowing what tissue is viable could enable more accurate diagnosis and aid in heart surgery. The results of the studies indicated that areas of dead or scar tissue were illuminated on the MR scan, whereas healthy tissue was not.

One study involved eight patients and compared pre-operative images using MR Delayed Contrast Enhancement with tissue samples taken during cardiac surgery. The conclusion was that regions of dense scar tissue are easily identified in contrast-enhanced MR images of the human heart.

The other study involved 15 patients in order to assess whether this technique can predict whether wall motion will improve following revascularization. The heart was imaged before and after either bypass surgery or angioplasty. The likelihood or lack of improvement both strongly correlated with the extent of illumination (hyperenhancement) of the myocardium. The conclusion was that the presence and extent of hyperenhancement using the MRI technique, predicts whether or not wall motion will improve following revascularization.

This method can be a significant aid in selecting cardiac treatment plans, It may prove especially important for patients who need bypass surgery because the method may indicate if diseased tissue is already dead, or remains alive and will improve in function after surgery. Patients with injured but living areas of the heart, if left untreated, are at high risk for having another heart attack.

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