Combined high-resolution assessment of quantitative perfusion and late enhancement. Towards accurate estimation of the ischaemic burden in patients with coronary artery disease

Excerpt

Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) allows the combined evaluation of myocardial perfusion status and viability in the same examination. Novel methods for high-resolution quantiative analysis of myocardial perfusion have rencently been described. High-resolution perfusion avoids spatial averaging and potentially enables a more accurate assessment of total inducible ischaemic burden. The simultaneous analysis of high-resolution late gadolinium enhancement images (LGE) allows excluding areas with overt ischaemic scar from quantitative perfusion analysis. This is potentially relevant to the estimation of the ischaemic burden, since areas of scar have can result in false-positive perfusion findings. The aim of this study was to test the feasibility of combined high-resolution assessment of perfusion and late enhancement, and to assess the potential of this novel approach to provide a more accurate estimation of the ischaemic burden in patients with coronary artery disease. …