Accuracy of infarct measurements by inversion recovery delayed-enhancement MRI during the hyper-acute phase of myocardial infarction in rats

Abstract

Delayed-enhancement (DE)-MRI is a well-established method for assessing in vivo infarct size in chronic and sub-chronic myocardial infarction (MI); however its application in small animal models has been limited to sub-optimal MR sequences, and its accuracy in the hyper-acute phase (i.e. hours) of MI remains ill-defined. This abstract describes a validation of inversion recovery DE-MRI for measuring infarct size during the hyper-acute phase of MI in rats. Our results demonstrate excellent agreement between DE-MRI and TTC staining. DE-MRI can offer accurate infarct measurement at the hyper-acute phase of MI, which may serve as a valuable early marker for prognostic predictions and assessment of therapeutic outcome.