Assessment of Critical Limb Ischemia using MRI

Background Critical limb ischaemia (CLI) is a manifestation of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) that describes patients with chronic ischaemic rest pain, or ischaemic skin lesions in the form of ulcers or gangrene[1]. Current treatment approaches differ, in part due to disputes over the best non-invasive method of assessing CLI. We therefore sought to determine whether MRI could provide an non-invasive objective assessment of the degree of ischemia without the use of contrast agents.