Assessment of Left Ventricular Systolic Function by MRI

The accurate assessment of left ventricular (LV) systolic function is clinically important in nearly all types of cardiac disease and often directly affects patient management. One example in ischemic heart disease include acute myocardial infarction (MI) for which ejection fraction and end-systolic volume are important predictors of survival (1) and are used to determine medical therapy. In other examples, a positive functional response to low doses of dobutamine accurately predicts recovery of function after acute MI and identifies myocardial viability in chronic MI. In the latter case, the functional response to dobutamine can be used to guide coronary revascularization therapy. In addition, the presence or absence of inducible wall motion abnormalities during stress testing indicates the presence or absence of significant coronary artery stenoses and consequently determines whether cardiac catheterization is indicated. Finally, recent research shows that the degree of LV dyssynchrony may be better than QRS morphology or width for predicting the response to cardiac resynchronization therapy in patients with heart failure.