Blood pool contrast agent CMD‐A2‐Gd‐DOTA‐enhanced MR imaging of infarcted myocardium in pigs

The purpose of this study was to assess the ability of the new blood pool contrast agent meglumine‐carboxymethyldextran‐ethylenediamino‐gadoterate (CMD‐A2‐Gd‐DOTA) to depict acute occlusive myocardial infarction (AMI). First‐pass gradient‐echo and delayed spin‐echo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed 5 days after induction of AMI in a pig model. MRI was correlated with pathology. First‐pass imaging with CMD‐A2‐Gd‐DOTA allowed detection of infarcted myocardium in all pigs (n = 7). The infarction was recognized as a black spot on MRI as well as on a parametric image. The signal intensity (SI) amplitudes of normal versus infarcted myocardium were 80.55 ± 18.61 versus 8.48 ± 15.50 on MRI and 81.62 ± 18.50 versus 1.61 ± 3.73 on the parametric image (both P values < 0.001. The contrast ratio between normal and infarcted myocardium was not significantly improved on spin‐echo MRI, suggesting largely intact vascular integrity outside the occluded area. CMD‐A2‐Gd‐DOTA is useful for depicting occlusive myocardial infarction by first‐pass MRI. Spin‐echo imaging is promising in assessing vascular integrity. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 1999;10:170–177. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.