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 beta 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 beta PI was 0.92 (P < .001). The correlation between transmural extent by MRI and GS was 0.77 (P < .001), and between MRI and beta PI was 0.93 (P < .001).
Conclusion: There was a good correlation between MPE, in special beta PI, with MRI in measuring infarcted area and its transmural extent in patients with AMI.