APPARATUS FOR JUDGING NORMAL CARDIAC MUSCLE TISSUE, DAMAGED CARDIAC MUSCLE TISSUE AND INFARCTED CARDIAC MUSCLE TISSUE IN VIVO BY MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable judgment of an infarcted cardiac muscle tissue with a higher spatial resolution by administering a patient with a contrast medium and then, executing an MR inspection for the heart of a patient after a specified time passes. SOLUTION: An MR contrast medium based on gadolinium (Gd) (e.g. Gd- PTPA as chelate of gadolinium) causes a phenomenon of selectively emphasizing the infarcted cardiac muscle tissue after a specified time passes (about 10-90 min. in advantage). Utilizing such a phenomenon, a patient is administered with an MR contrast medium and after a specified time, an MR inspection is executed for the heart of the patient. Within an MR image, the dead tissue is emphasized and the normal and damaged tissues are not. In other words, after a specified waiting time, the necrotized cadiac muscle area alone is emphasized by the MR contrast medium thereby enabling judging of the infarcted cadiac muscle tissue with a higher spatial resolution.