Avinash Kali1, 2, Andreas Kumar3, Richard Tang2, James Min2, Rohan Dharmakumar2, 4
1University of California, Los Angeles, CA, United States; 2Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, United States; 3Laval University, Laval, QC, Canada; 4Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, United States
The effectiveness of T2* maps, T2 maps and T2-STIR images for detecting acute reperfusion myocardial hemorrhage was evaluated in a surgically controlled canine model and a pilot patient population. Relative to remote myocardium, T2* decreased significantly in the presence of reperfusion hemorrhage, while T2-STIR signal intensity and T2 remained significantly elevated. T2* of non-hemorrhagic infarctions was not significantly different from the remote myocardium. T2-STIR signal intensity and T2 were significantly higher than those of both remote and hemorrhagic myocardium. We conclude that T2* is a more effective approach to detect acute reperfusion hemorrhage.