Computerized 3D echocardiography could be an alternative in order to identify viable myocardium as target area for revascularization and cell therapy after myocardial infarction, especially when other imagistic techniques (SPECT, PET) are not available. Stem cell transplantation after myocardial infarction is an innovative therapy in order to save larger myocardial areas and to recover hibernated myocardium postinfarction. We studied 39 patients with acute myocardial infarction classified in three groups, according to the treatment performed. For all patients we used computerized 3D echocardiography to determine objective parameters for complex analyze of left ventricular contractility, synchronism and remodeling. Parameters determined were: contraction dis-synchronism between different segments, time delay until reaching the maximum contraction amplitude, maximum contraction excursion, ejection fraction at different segments, ventricular volumes in different moments of cardiac cycle.
BackgroundMyocardial damage after myocardial infarction is one of the trigger factors for ventricular remodeling and evolution to heart failure, the degree of ventricular remodeling being a significant prognostic factor in postinfarction period [1,3]. One of the major objectives of cardiology in present is development of new strategies to decrease the infarct size. Different research teams are trying to identify innovative therapies for myocardial salvage and recovery of hibernated myocardium (viable myocardium located at the border area of infarction, with decreased metabolism)[7]. One of these methods is hematopoietic stem cells intracoronarian injection [5,8].When standard imagistic techniques like SPECT or PET are not available, computerized 3D echocardiography could represent an alternative to identify areas of viable myocardium as a target area for intervention [2,4,6]. 978-0-7695-3621-7/09 $25.00