[Estimation of left ventricular wall motion and viability by SPAMM tagging cine MRI]

To estimate the endocardial and epicardial myocardial function separately in patients with myocardial infarction patients with or without reperfusion therapy, the magnetic resonance imaging with tagging by spatial modulation of magnetization (SPAMM) was utilized and the endocardial and epicardial early diastolic strains were evaluated separately. The strain changes were correlated with the thallium-201 uptake and a good correlation between epicardial stain change and the thallium-201 uptake was observed. These results indicate the specific usefulness of SPAMM tagging in estimating the regional myocardial function and viability in reperfused myocardium.