Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is a robust tool to evaluate left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), myocardial salvage index, microvascular obstruction, and myocardial hemorrhage in patients with ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction. We evaluated the additional prognostic benefit of a CMR score over standard prognostic stratification with global registry of acute coronary events (GRACE) score and transthoracic echocardiography LVEF measurement.
Two hundred nine consecutive patients with ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction (age, 61.4±11.4 years; 162 men) underwent transthoracic echocardiography and CMR after succesful primary percutaneous coronary intervention. Major adverse cardiac events (MACE) were assessed at a mean follow-up of 2.5±1.2 years. MACE occurred in 24 (12%) patients who at baseline showed higher GRACE risk score (P<0.01), lower LVEF with both transthoracic echocardiography and CMR, lower myocardial salvage index, and higher per-patient myocardial hemorrhage and microvascular obstruction prevalence and amount as compared with patients without MACE (P<0.01). The best cut-off values of transthoracic echocardiography-LVEF, CMR-LVEF, myocardial salvage index, and microvascular obstruction to predict MACE were 46.7%, 37.5%, 0.4, and 2.6% of left ventricular mass, respectively. Accordingly, a weighted CMR score, including the following 4 variables (CMR-LVEF, myocardial salvage index, microvascular obstruction, and myocardial hemorrhage), with a maximum of 17 points was calculated and included in the multivariable analysis showing that only CMR score (hazard ratio, 1.867 per SD increase [1.311-2.658]; P<0.001) was independently associated with MACE with the highest net reclassification improvement as compared to GRACE score and transthoracic echocardiography-LVEF measurement.
CMR score provides incremental prognostic stratification as compared with GRACE score and transthoracic echocardiography-LVEF and may impact the management of patients with ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction.