With mounting data on its accuracy and prognostic value, cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is becoming an increasingly important diagnostic tool with growing utility in clinical routine. Given its versatility and wide range of quantitative parameters, however, agreement on specific standards for the interpretation and post-processing of CMR studies is required to ensure consistent quality and reproducibility of CMR reports. This document addresses this need by providing consensus recommendations developed by the Task Force for Post Processing of the Society for Cardiovascular MR (SCMR). The aim of the task force is to recommend requirements and standards for image interpretation and post processing enabling qualitative and quantitative evaluation of CMR images. Furthermore, pitfalls of CMR image analysis are discussed where appropriate.

The fractional distribution volumes of gadopentetate dimeglumine and 99mTc-DTPA are similar and indicate extracellular distribution in normal myocardium and intracellular as well as extracellular distribution in reperfused infarction. Because the failure of cells to exclude these agents is indicative of necrosis, contrast medium-enhanced MR imaging may be useful to quantify myocardial infarction.

With mounting data on its accuracy and prognostic value, cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is becoming an increasingly important diagnostic tool with growing utility in clinical routine. Given its versatility and wide range of quantitative parameters, however, agreement on specific standards for the interpretation and post-processing of CMR studies is required to ensure consistent quality and reproducibility of CMR reports. This document addresses this need by providing consensus recommendations developed by the Task Force for Post-Processing of the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR). The aim of the Task Force is to recommend requirements and standards for image interpretation and post-processing enabling qualitative and quantitative evaluation of CMR images. Furthermore, pitfalls of CMR image analysis are discussed where appropriate. It is an update of the original recommendations published 2013.

Background-Because ischemically injured myocardium is frequently composed of viable and nonviable portions, a method to discriminate the two is useful for clinical management. Methods and Results-Ischemically injured myocardium was characterized with extracellular nonspecific (Gd-DTPA) and necrosis-specific (mesoporphyrin) MR contrast media in rats. Relaxation rates (R1) were measured on day 1 and day 2 by inversion-recovery echoplanar imaging. Spin-echo imaging was used to define contrast-enhanced regions and regional wall thickening. Gadolinium concentration, area at risk, and infarct size were measured at postmortem examination. ⌬R1 ratio (⌬R1 myocardium /⌬R1 blood ) after administration of Gd-DTPA was greater in ischemically injured myocardium (1.20Ϯ0.15) than in normal myocardium (0.47Ϯ0.05, PϽ0.05), which was attributed to differences in gadolinium concentration and water content. The Gd-DTPA-enhanced region on day 2 was larger (32.8Ϯ0.9%) than true infarction as demonstrated by triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) (24.6Ϯ1.4%, PϽ0.001, rϭ0.21). Bland-Altman analysis revealed that the Gd-DTPA-enhanced region overestimated true infarct size by 7.8Ϯ5.9%. On the other hand, the mesoporphyrin-enhanced region (26.9Ϯ1.8%, PϭNS, rϭ0.87) and true infarct size were identical. The difference in the areas demarcated by the 2 agents is the peri-infarction. Systolic and diastolic MR images revealed no wall thickening in the mesoporphyrin-enhanced region (0.3Ϯ3.3%) but reduced thickening in the Gd-DTPA-enhanced rim (8.5Ϯ5.5%, PϽ0.05). Conclusions-The Gd-DTPA-enhanced region encompasses both viable and nonviable portions of the ischemically injured myocardium. The Gd-DTPA-enhanced area overestimated infarct size, but the mesoporphyrin-enhanced area matched true infarct size. The salvageable peri-infarction zone can be characterized with double-contrast-enhanced and functional MR imaging; the mismatched area of enhancement between the 2 agents shows residual wall thickening.

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