Comparison of MDCT and MRI in the detection and sizing of acute and chronic myocardial infarcts.
OBJECTIVE
This study compared ability of multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) to detect and size the myocardial infarctions (MI) with MRI.


METHODS
Eighty examination sets of MDCT and MRI of 63 consecutive patients in the acute stage (average 6.3 days, n=40) and/or chronic stage (average, 11.8 months; n=40) of reperfused MI were examined in this study. The first-pass and delayed MRI was performed using a 1.5 T scanner with an injection of Gd-DTPA to assess the extent of MI. Within 24h after MRI, MDCT was performed at the arterial phase around 25s with a 10-min delay using one of the following scanners: 4-slice, 16-slice, and 40-slice. The volume of the MI over the total myocardial volume was calculated from the MRI and CT images.


RESULTS
MDCT revealed MI lesions in all cases except for one (1.3%) on the early phase images. The percentage volume of the lesion on the MDCT images correlated with that of the MR images. The correlation coefficient between perfusion MRI and early CT was 0.62 (p<0.0001) and the correlation coefficient between the 5-min delay MRI and late CT was 0.81 (p<0.0001). There was no significant difference in the average lesion volume (%) between perfusion MRI (10.8+/-6.7%) and early CT (12.1+/-8.5%) (p>0.05), but there was significant difference between the 5-min delay MRI (25.9+/-12.1%) and late CT (22.8+/-11.8%) (p<0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
MDCT produces comparable results to MRI in the detection and sizing of acute and chronic MI.
Department of Radiology and Center for Imaging Science, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Gangnam-Gu, Seoul 135-710, South Korea. yhchoe@smc.samsung.co.kr
Yeon Hyeon
YH
Choe
Ki Seok
KS
Choo
Eun-Seok
ES
Jeon
Hyeon-Cheol
HC
Gwon
Jin-Ho
JH
Choi
Jeong-Euy
JE
Park
D003287:Contrast Media; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D007479:Iopamidol; D016014:Linear Models; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*
D003287:Contrast Media; D007479:Iopamidol