Determination of Size and Transmural Extent of Acute Myocardial Infarction by Real-time Myocardial Perfusion Echocardiography: A Comparison with Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Objective The exact determination of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) extent is still a challenging issue. Quantitative myocardial perfusion echocardiography (MPE) with parametric imaging (PI) and gray scale (GS) has been shown to accurately measure infarcted area in animals, but not in human beings. We sought to validate MPE quantification of transmural extent and size of AMI using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a gold standard. Methods Twenty patients (12 men, 64 ± 13 years) underwent MPE and MRI between the second and fifth day post-AMI. Infarct area and location, number of involved segments, and transmural extent in each segment were determined by PI using β value and GS. Results were compared with late enhanced MRI. Results There was 99% agreement between both methods regarding the segmental location. The correlation between infarct area by MRI and GS was 0.82 ( P < .001) whereas MRI and β PI was 0.92 ( P < .001). The correlation between transmural extent by MRI and GS was 0.77 ( P < .001), and between MRI and β PI was 0.93 ( P < .001). Conclusion There was a good correlation between MPE, in special β PI, with MRI in measuring infarcted area and its transmural extent in patients with AMI.