[Cardiac diffusion MRI of recent and chronic myocardial infarction: preliminary results]

To use diffusion weighted MR imaging (DWI), a technique routinely used in patients with stroke, for diagnosis of myocardial infarction (MI).A breath hold ECG gated DWI sequence (b = 300 sec/mm2) was developped and applied to 7 patients with recent MI (3-15 days), 3 patients with chronic MI (6 months) and 4 patients with valvular heart disease without MI (control cases). DWI data were correlated to T2W, first pass perfusion and delayed enhancement data.In all patients with recent MI, DWI showed an area of increased signal with reduction of ADC relative to normal myocardium. Hyperintense lesion on DWI corresponded to areas of delayed enhancement. The diffusion images were normal in patients with chronic MI or no MI.Even though no animal model or other reference method is available, these preliminary results indicate that DWI could assist clinicians in detecting recent MI.