Some patients with chronic ischemic left ventricular dysfunction have shown significant improvements of contractility with favorable long-term prognosis after revascularization. Several imaging techniques are available for the assessment of viable myocardium, based on the detection of preserved perfusion, preserved glucose metabolism, intact cell membrane and mitochondria, and presence of contr...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether myocardial parametric imaging (MPI) is superior to visual assessment for the evaluation of myocardial viability. METHODS AND RESULTS Myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) was assessed in 11 pigs before, during, and after left anterior descending coronary artery occlusion and in 32 patients with ischaemic heart disease by using intravenous SonoVue administrat...

Evaluation of myocardial perfusion and viability in patients with stable coronary artery disease have now become the basic source of information in qualification for revascularization or optimal medical therapy. This article describes all the available methods of non-invasive imaging of myocardial perfusion and viability.

The determination of myocardial viability is crucial in patients with left ventricular dysfunction resulting from acute myocardial ischemia or chronic coronary artery disease. Viable myocardium will most likely benefit from revascularization procedures. However, the revascularization of scar tissue will not lead to improvement of ventricularfunction andfurthermore bears unnecessary riskfor the ...

Nitrate-augmented myocardial perfusion imaging has been demonstrated to improve the detection of myocardial viability and accurately predicts recovery of left ventricular (LV) function in patients with severe coronary artery disease and LV dysfunction. Recently, several studies showed the prognostic utility of nitrate imaging in evaluation of event-free survival in ischemic LV dysfunction. Furt...

Background—N-Ethoxy-N-ethyl-dithiocarbamato-nitrido-Tc (Tc-N-NOET) is a new neutral lipophilic Tc-labeled myocardial perfusion agent with a high first-pass extraction fraction and delayed redistribution kinetics after transient ischemia comparable to what is observed with Tl. It is unknown whether the uptake of this tracer reflects myocardial viability or just reperfusion flow in the setting of...