title: Cardiac imaging to identify patients at risk for developing heart failure after myocardial infarction.
abstract: The development of heart failure (HF) after acute myocardial infarction (MI) is recognized as a major complication that leads to a significant increase in morbidity and mortality. Given the availability of effective treatments for improving both quality of life and survival for patients at increased risk for developing HF after MI, early identification of these individuals is critical. Noninvasive cardiac imaging offers a detailed characterization of two important pathophysiological processes related to the development of HF post-MI: left ventricular (LV) remodeling and LV functional recovery. Cardiovascular MRI has recently emerged as the preferred noninvasive imaging modality because of its ability to provide the most comprehensive and informative evaluation of these processes. In addition to allowing for an accurate and reproducible longitudinal follow-up of LV volumes and mass, MRI also offers information on infarct size, the presence of microvascular obstruction, and the transmural extent of infarct scar, all of which are valuable parameters that can assist in identifying patients at risk for developing HF after MI.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiology, Blalock 524, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA.
authors.forename: Clerio F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Azevedo
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: João A C
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Lima
mesh_terms: D006333:Heart Failure / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000150:complications*; D015635:Radionuclide Ventriculography; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon