Ischemic late gadolinium enhancement.

While research exploring the utility of intravascular gadolinium based contrast agents (GBCA), such as gadofosveset (Vasovist, ABLAVAR) is ongoing, cardiac MR is currently routinely performed with administration of standard extracellular GBCAs, e.g. Gd-DTPA (Magnevist) or Gd-BOPTA (Multihance). LGE is a phenomenon related to the distribution of the extracellular GBCAs. Upon intravenous injection of an extracellular GBCA, myocardium enhances when gadolinium chelate contrast material diffuses passively throughout the extracellular space.2