Magnetic resonance imaging of ischemic heart disease.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has several attributes important for evaluating ischemic heart disease. Internal cardiac anatomy is well delineated owing to inherent contrast between the blood pool and the cardiac walls. Using relaxation times and signal intensity differences, it is possible to discriminate between infarcted (acute and chronic) and normal myocardium. Gated MRI can also be used to quantitate regional myocardial infarction.