Relationship between extent of residual myocardial viability and coronary flow reserve in patients with recent myocardial infarction

Background The presence of viability in an infarct zone implies an intact m icrovasculature. We hypothesized that coronary flow reserve (CFR), which as sesses the microcirculation, would correlate with the extent of viability i n infarction zones. Methods CFR was measured after stenting in 17 patients with single vessel d isease >48 hours from infarction. Viability was determined with use of sing le-photon emission computed tomography sestamibi imaging. Results Sestamibi uptake in the infarct zone correlated with CFR in the inf arct artery (r = 0.62, P = .008) and sestamibi uptake in the infarct zone w as greater in patients with normal CFR than in patients with abnormal CFR ( 61.9 +/- 9.1% vs 46.3 +/- 9.6%, P = .004). In addition, CFR was greater in patients with viability compared with patients without viability (2.4 +/- 1 .3 vs 1.4 +/- 0.4, P = .015). Conclusions CFR correlates with the extent of viability after infarction. P reserved CFR in an infarct-related artery implies preserved viability.