Detection and differentiation of early acute and following age stages of myocardial infarction with quantitative post-mortem cardiac 1.5 T MR. (January 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Schwendener, Nicole; Jackowski, Christian; Persson, Anders; Warntjes, Marcel J.; Schuster, Frederick; Riva, Fabiano; Zech, Wolf-Dieter
• Is Part Of: Forensic science international. Volume 270(2017)
• Page Start: 248
• Page End: 254
• Publication Date: 2017-01
• Subjects: MRI magnetic resonance imaging -- PMCMR post-mortem cardiac magnetic resonance -- PMI post-mortem interval -- ROC receiver operator characteristic -- ROI region of interest -- T Tesla -- T1w T1-weighted -- T2w T2-weighted -- TE echo time -- TI inversion time -- TR repetition time -- TSE turbo spin echo -- PD proton density -- PDw PD-weighted; Quantitative post-mortem cardiac MR -- Myocardial infarction -- Infarction age -- Heart -- Post-mortem imaging; Medical jurisprudence -- Periodicals; Chemistry, Forensic -- Periodicals; Forensic Medicine -- Periodicals; Médecine légale -- Périodiques; Chimie légale -- Périodiques; Gerechtelijke geneeskunde; Gerechtelijke chemie; Gerechtelijke psychiatrie; Chemistry, Forensic; Medical jurisprudence; Electronic journals; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 614.1
• DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2016.10.014
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0379-0738

Abstract

Highlights: Myocardial infarction was investigated with quantitative post-mortem MRI. T1, T2 and PD values of infarction lesions were correlated with histology. Different age stages of infarction were discernable based on T1, T2 and PD values. Abstract: Recently, quantitative MR sequences have started being used in post-mortem imaging. The goal of the present study was to evaluate if early acute and following age stages of myocardial infarction can be detected and discerned by quantitative 1.5 T post-mortem cardiac magnetic resonance (PMCMR) based on quantitative T1, T2 and PD values. In 80 deceased individuals (25 female, 55 male), a cardiac MR quantification sequence was performed prior to cardiac dissection at autopsy in a prospective study. Focal myocardial signal alterations detected in synthetically generated MR images were MR quantified for their T1, T2 and PD values. The locations of signal alteration measurements in PMCMR were targeted at autopsy heart dissection and cardiac tissue specimens were taken for histologic examinations. Quantified signal alterations in PMCMR were correlated to their according histologic age stage of myocardial infarction. In PMCMR seventy-three focal myocardial signal alterations were detected in 49 of 80 investigated hearts. These signal alterations were diagnosed histologically as early acute (n = 39), acute (n = 14), subacute (n = 10) and chronic (n = 10) age stages of myocardial infarction. Statistical analysis revealed that based on their quantitative T1, T2 and PD values, a significant difference between all defined age groups of myocardial infarction can be determined. It can be concluded that quantitative 1.5 T PMCMR quantification based on quantitative T1, T2 and PD values is feasible for characterization and differentiation of early acute and following age stages of myocardial infarction.