Detection and characterization of acute myocardial infarction in man with use of gated magnetic resonance.

To evaluate the capability of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the detection and characterization of alterations in signal intensity and T2 relaxation time in acutely infarcted relative to normal myocardium 16 adult patients and normal volunteers were studied by electrocardiographically gated proton MRI. The seven volunteers were entirely asymptomatic and had no history of cardiovascular abnormality. The nine patients had each suffered an acute myocardial infarction within 5 to 12 days before the MRI studies. The diagnosis in each patient was confirmed by electrocardiographic (ECG) criteria and elevated levels of fractionated creatine kinase (CK) isoenzymes. Electrocardiographically gated MRI was performed with a superconducting system operating at 0.35 tesla. MRI demonstrated infarcted myocardium as a region of high signal intensity relative to that of adjacent normal myocardium; regions of high intensity corresponded anatomically to the site of infarction as defined by the ECG changes. The mean percent difference between normal and infarcted myocardium was substantially greater on 56 msec images (70.2 +/- 21.3%) compared with 28 msec images (27.1 +/- 13.6%). Region of interest analysis revealed that infarcted myocardium had a significantly (p less than .01) prolonged T2 relaxation time (mean T2 = 80.9 msec) relative to that in normal myocardium (mean T2 = 42.3 msec) and relative to the mean T2 of left ventricular myocardium in the volunteers (mean T2 = 42.4 msec). An additional finding for each patient with myocardial infarction was a high intraluminal flow signal on 56 msec images, but this was also observed in normal subjects and is therefore a nonspecific finding.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)