Impact of Myocardial Infarct on Regional Left Ventricular Function

Ramsey Al-Hakim¹, James Sayre¹, Kalyanam Shivkumar¹, Paul Finn¹, Carissa Fonseca¹

We utilized Cine and Delayed Contrast Enhanced MRI to measure the extent of functional impairment in the infarct, infarct-adjacent, and remote myocardial regions in patients with previous left ventricular myocardial infarction (MI). The infarct-adjacent region was functionally distinct from the infarct and remote regions as measured by segmental myocardial thickening, ejection fraction, and end systolic volume. Furthermore, the decline in thickening from the infarct-adjacent to infarct region was significantly greater than from the remote to infarct-adjacent region. This suggests a non-linear relationship exists between post-MI myocardial function and distance from infarct, which has important clinical implications in revascularization therapy.