The progress of assessment of myocardial viability by delayed-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography and single-photon emission computed tomography

Coronary artery disease (CAD)is one of the most common diseases that results in the different degree of myocardial damage.Thus, only viable myocardium in patients can get benefit from the myocardial revascularization.The accurate differentiation of viable and nonviable myocardium is crucial for therapy planning in patients with coronary artery disease and left ventricular dysfunction.Clinically, traditional techniques such as echocardiography, positron emission tomography,, and single photon emission computed tomography have established roles.With the recent MRI technical developments allowing for a combined assessment of peffusion and irreversible damage with late enhancement imaging, MRI will now play a major role in the assessment of myocardial viability.Through the technique of delayed-enhancement MRI (DE-MRI), viable and infarcted myocardium can be simultaneously identified in a manner that closely correlates with histopathology findings.