Recovery of left ventricular dysfunction after ST-elevation myocardial infarction: comparison between 2D Doppler echocardiography and contrast enhanced cardiac MRI

Results Of 116 patients screened, 91 met inclusion criteria and 56 patients completed follow-up imaging (3-79 weeks). 89% of both the imaging studies were completed within 3 days of the index MI and 32 (57%) patients had a baseline LVEF <50%. The ability of ceMRI and TTE variables to predict normalization of LVEF was assessed using ROC analysis. Delayed enhancement left ventricular mass index (DEi) (DEi <20% 35/56 (63%) was the strongest (AUC 0.86, p=0.0004) predictor of LVEF recovery with a sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of 0.79, 0.92, 0.94, and 0.75 respectively. When combined with DEi, wall motion score index (WMSI) significantly correlated with follow-up EF (r=0.81, p<0.0001) and overall change in EF (r=0.73, p<0.001). Acute measures of diastolic function did not meaningfully predict LVEF recovery.