title: Quantitative assessment of myocardial blush grade in patients with coronary artery disease and in cardiac transplant recipients.
abstract: Quantitative assessment of myocardial perfusion by myocardial blush grade (MBG) is an angiographic computer-assisted method to assess myocardial tissue-level reperfusion in patients with acute coronary syndromes and microvascular integrity in heart transplant recipients with suspected cardiac allograft vasculopathy. This review describes the ability of quantitative MBG as a simple, fast and cost effective modality for the prompt diagnosis of impaired microvascular integrity during routine cardiac catheterization. Herein, we summarize the existing evidence, its usefulness in the clinical routine, and compare this method to other techniques which can be used for the assessment of myocardial perfusion.
authors.affiliation: Nina Patricia Hofmann, Hugo A Katus, Grigorios Korosoglou, Department of Cardiology, University of Heidelberg, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Nina Patricia
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Hofmann
authors.affiliation: Nina Patricia Hofmann, Hugo A Katus, Grigorios Korosoglou, Department of Cardiology, University of Heidelberg, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Hartmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dickhaus
authors.affiliation: Nina Patricia Hofmann, Hugo A Katus, Grigorios Korosoglou, Department of Cardiology, University of Heidelberg, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Hugo A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Katus
authors.affiliation: Nina Patricia Hofmann, Hugo A Katus, Grigorios Korosoglou, Department of Cardiology, University of Heidelberg, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Grigorios
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Korosoglou
keywords: Coronary artery disease; Heart transplantation; Prognosis; Quantitative myocardial blush grade