Stress functional MRI: Detection of ischemic heart disease and myocardial viability

Breath-hold gradient-echo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in conjunction w ith pharmacologic dobutamine stress has become a practical tool to investig ate patients with chest pain. The presence of high-grade coronary artery st enoses can be detected more accurately than with stress echocardiography, T he main diagnostic advantage of MRI is in patients with suboptimal echocard iographic image quality, Depiction of left ventricular anatomy and function at rest and during low-dose dobutamine stress is also clinically useful fo r evaluating patients with severely impaired left ventricular function for the presence of residual myocardial viability. Recovery of regional and glo bal left ventricular function can be accurately predicted by stress functio nal MRI. (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.