Assessment of myocardial viability using MRI during a constant infusion of Gd-DTPA: Further studies at early and late periods of reperfusion

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Abstract
It was previously shown in a canine model of ischemia/reperfusion injury that the partition coefficient of gadolinium‐diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid (Gd‐DTPA) (λ) increases in infarcted tissue. That previous study used a non‐magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method to measure λ and only investigated reperfusion times from 2 hr to 3 weeks. This study presents evidence suggesting that λ starts to increase as early as 1 min after reperfusion of a 2 hr occlusion and continues to rise for up to 2 hr or more; λ stays increased as late as 8 weeks, reaching peak values at 1–11 days and subsequently decreasing. It was also demonstrated that λ can be accurately measured in vivo using a saturation recovery turbo fast low‐angle shot (FLASH) sequence. The results of this study show that MRI during a constant infusion of Gd‐DTPA has great potential for the non‐invasive determination of myocardial viability as early as 1 min to as late as 8 weeks following reperfusion of acute myocardial infarction. Magn Reson Med 42:60–68, 1999.