http://www.appliedradiology.com RSS Feed on Applied Radiologyhttp://www.appliedradiology.com//Issues/2003/06/Supplements/MR-Evaluation-of-myocardial-viability-in-chronic-ischemic-heart-disease.aspxChronic myocardial ischemia is a major cause of cardiac injury, often leading to permanent dysfunction and mortality. However, in some cases, injured myocardium remains "viable": it will recover function if blood flow to it is improved. Identification of viable myocardium has prognostic and therapeutic implications in the management of chronic ischemic heart disease. Recent advances in imaging sequences for contrast-enhanced cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) imaging now allow for identification of the characteristic delayed enhancement in scar tissue with high resolution. This offers several advantages in assessment of viability over stress echocardiographic and nuclear medicine techniques currently in use. These include the fact that MR imaging can be performed at rest and its ability to distinguish subendocardial from transmural scar.Wednesday, 11 Jun 2003 15:34:46 GMT