Background: In survivors of myocardial infarction, restoration of antegrade flow in the infarct artery reduces morbidity and mortality. At present, coronary artery patency must be assessed invasively with contrast angiography. A noninvasive method of evaluating infarct artery patency would be useful in managing survivors of infarction. This study was performed to determine whether magnetic resonance (MR) imaging could reliably assess infarct artery patency in this patient population.
Methods and results: Eighteen survivors of myocardial infarction (11 men and 7 women, aged 35 to 74 years) who were consecutively referred for cardiac catheterization underwent contrast coronary angiography and cine MR coronary angiography. Sequential overlapping images of the infarct artery were acquired with cine MR during 15- to 20-second periods of breath-holding. In each study, proximal, middle, and distal segments of infarct arteries were classified as having antegrade, collateral, or no flow. The infarct artery was the left anterior descending in 10 patients, the right anterior descending in 7, and the circumflex in 1. When compared with the results of contrast angiography, MR imaging correctly identified the presence or absence of antegrade flow in the infarct artery of all 18 patients. In addition, cine MR coronary angiography with presaturating pulses correctly established the presence or absence of collateral filling of the distal portion of occluded arteries in 6 of 7 subjects.
Conclusions: In survivors of myocardial infarction, cine MR coronary angiography can reliably determine the patency and direction of flow in the infarct artery.