Prognosis following acute myocardial infarction: insights from cardiovascular magnetic resonance.

Acute myocardial infarction and its sequelae are the leading cause of death in the United States. Diagnostic imaging of myocardial infarction in both acute and chronic settings provides valuable prognostic information for clinical decision making. Cardiovascular MRI is unique in its ability to offer several different methods for predicting prognosis with regard to viability and future cardiovascular events. These MRI methods, which include dobutamine MRI, perfusion imaging, and delayed contrast-enhanced MRI, can assess contractile function and reserve, microvascular obstruction, and scar characterization, respectively. Future work will further characterize how cardiovascular MRI can assess prognosis as these emerging technologies become incorporated in routine clinical practice.