SSFP cine images early post-gadolinium improve detection of myocardial oedema in acute myocardial infarction compared to T2-weighted dark blood turbo spin echo images

Background Demonstration of myocardial oedema following MI allows differentiation of acute and chronic MI, and assessment of the area at risk of infarction. T2-weighted dark blood TSE imaging for oedema is technically demanding and prone to artefacts. Our protocol for patients with acute MI include standard oedema imaging sequences and more recently T2 prepared single shot SSFP sequences, followed by adenosine-stress perfusion imaging. The short axis SSFP cine stack is performed immediately after the perfusion study in an early post contrast phase (2-3 minutes). We observed that the cine stack in this protocol showed high signal in the infarct area correlating with the distribution of oedema on T2-weighted sequences. We hypothesized that SSFP-cine images early post contrast might be a more robust and time efficient alternative to T2-weighted imaging with TSE sequences.