Gated MR imaging of the heart: intracardiac signals in patients and healthy subjects

The appearance of intraluminal signal in the cardiac chambers, the descending aorta, and blood vessels was studied in healthy subjects and patients with myocardial disease on first and second spin-echo gated magnetic resonance images. Signal was present in the cardiac chambers and the aorta at various phases of the cardiac cycle when physiological or pathological slow flow conditions are expected in healthy subjects and in patients. Healthy individuals tended to show signal in the ventricles and aorta during end-diastole, and signal was less likely to be present at higher heart rates and in systolic images. In patients with regional or global left ventricular dysfunction, intraventricular signal tended to persist into systole. Surprisingly, intraventricular signal was not present with increased frequency adjacent to infarcted regions of the myocardial wall. Thus, the mere presence of intracavitary signal cannot be used as an indicator of either regional or global cardiac contraction abnormalities. In the left atrium, signal was often present during systole. Physical factors determining the appearance of signal of flowing blood are discussed in an Appendix.