Magnetic resonance imaging and multi-detector computed tomography assessment of extracellular compartment in ischemic and non-ischemic myocardial pathologies

Figure 1 Schematic presentation of various types (patchy and contiguous) and locations (epicardium, midmyocardium and endocardiu) of myocardial infarct in different cardiac diseases. In acute myocardial infarct > 30% of the patients have a hypoenhanced microvascular zone in the core of contiguous infarct. Reactive interstitial fibrosis is seen in hypertension, valvular, diabetic and genetic diseases as well as aging, while infiltrative interstitial fibrosis is evident in amyloidosis and Anderson-Fabry disease. The replacement of myocardium with scar tissue is seen in inflammatory disease, chronic ischemia/coronary occlusion (contiguous), chronic renal insufficiency (patchy) and genetic and toxic diseases.