Blood pool contrast agent CMD-A2-Gd-DOTA-enhanced MR imaging of infarcted myocardium in pigs.

The purpose of this study was to assess the ability of the new blood pool contrast agent meglumine-carboxymethyldextran-ethylenediamino-gadoterate (CMD-A2-Gd-DOTA) to depict acute occlusive myocardial infarction (AMI). First-pass gradient-echo and delayed spin-echo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed 5 days after induction of AMI in a pig model. MRI was correlated with pathology. First-pass imaging with CMD-A2-Gd-DOTA allowed detection of infarcted myocardium in all pigs (n = 7). The infarction was recognized as a black spot on MRI as well as on a parametric image. The signal intensity (SI) amplitudes of normal versus infarcted myocardium were 80.55 +/- 18.61 versus 8.48 +/- 15.50 on MRI and 81.62 +/- 18.50 versus 1.61 +/- 3.73 on the parametric image (both P values < 0.001. The contrast ratio between normal and infarcted myocardium was not significantly improved on spin-echo MRI, suggesting largely intact vascular integrity outside the occluded area. CMD-A2-Gd-DOTA is useful for depicting occlusive myocardial infarction by first-pass MRI. Spin-echo imaging is promising in assessing vascular integrity. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 1999;10:170-177. Copyright 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.