Late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMRI) is an established techniques to assess myocardial viability in patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease (CAD). Even in individuals with good left ventricular function myocardial infarction (MI) is associated with increased morbidity and mortality due to major cardiac adverse events (MACE). Consequently the assessment of myocardial viability is relevant for risk stratification when considering therapeutic options in patients with CAD. The presence of MI in LGE CMRI in patients with CAD without a history...

Patient group: 240 patients with either new onset of symptoms indicating myocardial ischemia or recurrent symptoms of myocardial ischemia in patients with known CAD were included retrospectively. Indication for CMRI was to confirm the presence of stress induced myocardial ischemia and correlate with myocardial viability to decide on potential revascularization. The patient group consisted of 182 male and 58 female patients with a mean age of 63.5±10.5 years. 181 of 240 patients had a history of CAD, 76 patients also a history of MI. Examination...

Results of perfusion and viability assessment indicated the presence of CAD in 210 patients confirmed by coronary. MI was depicted by LGE CMRI in 118 of these 210 patients representing 56% of patients with CAD in our study group. In 8 patients with MI depicted by LGE CMRI not even a history of CAD was known. In 69 of the remaining 110 patients MI was previously known representing 58% of all patients with MI depicted by LGE CMRI forming group 1. In 49 of 118...

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is in the industrialized world one of the most common reasons for morbidity and mortality (1). In many patients myocardial infarction (MI) represents the first clinical manifestation of CAD (2). MI even in patients with good left ventricular function contributes to a significant increase in morbidity and mortality in patients with CAD due to associated major adverse cardiac events (3). MI occurs in a certain percentage of patients without typical clinical symptoms and therefore the presence of MI depicted by LGE...

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