During the 12th Annual Scientific Sessions (January 29 to February 1, 2009) of the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR), the world's major international society for cardiovascular imaging, the role of magnetic resonance imaging to assess the effect of therapy in patients with acute myocardial infarction will be demonstrated in a series of papers. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging offers the ability to measure after therapy the size a myocardial infarction would have had if no therapy had been performed (Salvage-imaging). This allows physicians to assess the effect of their intervention and thus, to perform studies to optimize the benefit to their patients.

Before this new technique became available, this knowledge could only be generated to compare large groups of patients who underwent different treatment regimes to average the differences between the groups. With the new technique, these differences can now be corrected for and thus much faster progress towards individually optimized therapy can be generated.

"Using the new magnetic resonance technique we have been able to show in a relatively small trial of 220 patients, that therapy in patients after myocardial infarction can be optimized adding antioxidative agents to standard therapy," said Holger Thiele, MD, from the University of Leipzig, Germany. "We had known this from animal data before and were now able to demonstrate this effect in patients using magnetic resonance imaging as an endpoint."

Magnetic resonance imaging has already been established as an endpoint for cardiac function, size and measuring the size of irreversible myocardial damage after myocardial infarction. It is now expanding to a further endpoint for myocardial salvage in patients with acute myocardial infarction.

About the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR)
Founded in 1994, SCMR is a professional association whose vision is to be the recognized representative and advocate for physicians, scientists and technologists who work in the field of cardiovascular magnetic resonance. SCMR endeavors to be the principal international, independent organization committed to the further development of cardiovascular magnetic resonance through education, quality control, research, and training. For more information, visit www.scmr.org.