Myocardial salvage: its assessment and prediction by the analysis of serial myocardial contrast echocardiograms in patients with acute myocardial infarction.

It has been difficult to assess myocardial salvage in patients with coronary reflow because of the lack of appropriate methods of determining the risk area and assessing effects of coronary reflow in patients, myocardial contrast echocardiography was performed in 28 patients with acute myocardial infarction before reperfusion, immediately after reperfusion, and in the chronic stage with the right and left coronary arterial injection of sonicated ioxaglate. Contrast-deficit and contrast-filled areas before reperfusion were defined as the risk area and noninfarct area, respectively. If the ratio of peak subtracted gray level in the risk area to that in the noninfarct area was < 0.4, the risk area was taken as a contrast defect. Contrast defect was observed even after reperfusion in 8 (29%) patients, and the defect was consistently observed in the chronic stage in all of them. Contrast defect disappeared after reperfusion in the other 20 patients but reappeared in 4 (20%) of them in the chronic stage despite the patent infarct-related vessel. Left ventricular function recovery of the risk area in the chronic stage as assessed with regional wall motion and wall thickness was better in the patients without contrast defect after reperfusion than in patients with persistent or reappeared contrast defect. In conclusion, (1) myocardial salvage is improbable in patients with contrast defect immediately after reperfusion, (2) contrast enhancement immediately after reperfusion does not necessarily imply myocardial salvage in the chronic stage, and (3) myocardial echocardiography in the chronic stage may provide clinically useful information about myocardial salvage in patients with myocardial infarction.