Myocardial delayed contrast-enhanced MRI: relationships between various enhancing patterns and myocardial diseases.

The concentration of MR contrast agents is relatively high in abnormal myocardial tissue, with increased extravascular space and/or abnormal contrast wash-in and wash-out characteristics. Based on this mechanism, myocardial delayed contrast-enhanced MRI has been increasingly used to detect myocardial damage. Delayed enhancement (DE) can be seen in various components, such as fibrosis, protein infiltration or possibly myocardial disarray with disorganized myocardial fibre packing. Therefore, DE can be seen in various myocardial diseases, each of which has a characteristic DE pattern. Knowledge of the relationships among various DE patterns and myocardial diseases is useful for differential diagnosis and management.