Balanced steady-state free precession cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging of edema in reperfused acute myocardial infarcts - a translational study in animals and men

All CMR images were obtained on a 1.5 T clinical system (Siemens, Germany), using the following sequences in a short axis orientation (slice thickness 10 mm, 0 gap): conventional cine SSFP, T2-STIR (patients only), late enhancement (10 min after injection of 0.2 mmol/kg GdDTPA), applying typical sequence parameters. Semiquantitative threshold-based image analysis of late enhancement images (LE) identified the infarct region and infarct area was calculated. In the infarction zone and remote myocardium, on corresponding T2-STIR and SSFP images, signal and contrast, as well as the area of edema were measured and compared using paired t-tests, correlation statistics.