Multimodal MRI in the course of cardiac wound healing after myocardial infarction

Background Myocardial tissue undergoes various adaptive processes in the course of healing after myocardial infarction including infiltration of immunocompetent cells. Assessment of myocardial infarction and subsequent healing with contrast-enhanced and T2-weighted MRI holds the advantage of non-invasive localisation and characterisation of myocardial lesions, determination of their functional relevance and monitoring oedema formation and resorbtion in myocardial tissue. A quantitative method to determine immune cell migration into myocardial tissue as consequence of myocardial infarction is provided by 19F MRI after intravenous application of emulsified perfluorocarbons (PFCs).