Chronic ischaemic heart disease

Chronic ischaemic heart disease (IHD) is one of the most common cardiac conditions worldwide and is generally caused by the consequences of coronary atherosclerosis, including myocardial infarction. Clinical challenges in chronic IHD include detection of myocardial ischaemia in symptomatic patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD), evaluation of myocardial viability in patients with established IHD and poor left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) when revascularization is considered, as well as risk stratification and identification of patients with chronic IHD at high risk of complications. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) can provide vital answers to all three of these challenges. Stress CMR is now increasingly used to detect ischaemia by means of vasodilator stress perfusion or dobutamine stress contractile reserve stress imaging. For viability assessment, late gadolinium enhancement is currently the method of choice to detect myocardial infarction, and low-dose dobutamine stress magnetic resonance can provide additional information to determine viability and guide therapy. Cardiovascular risk in patients with chronic IHD is mainly determined by left ventricular function, most commonly utilizing LVEF, as well as infarct size, infarct characteristics, and ischaemic burden, which can all be measured reliably with CMR. This chapter will review the role of CMR for the detection of myocardial ischaemia, viability, and risk.