Date: 08-09-2002

Hospital: Durham, NC, Duke, Cardiovascular MR Center

Patient History

65 year old patient suffered myocardial infarction and underwent angioplasty 6 months ago. Recent cath shows vessel has reoccluded.

Image Findings

Entire LAD territory distal to the stent is non-viable. All myocardium proximal to the stent and in all other coronary artery territories is viable.

Results and Discussion

The clinical question for this patient was whether he should go to CABG because the LAD had reoccluded. Angiography showed minimal disease in other coronary vessels. Because the MRI showed no viable myocardium distal to the occluded stent and because the other coronary vessels did not have signficant disease, he would not be expected to benefit from revascularization. On the basis of the MRI and cath results this patient‘s CABG was cancelled.