WHAT’S ROLE OF LATE IODINE ENHANCEMENT CARDIAC COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY IN THE CARDIOPATHIC PATIENT?

Abstract

In the clinical practice the cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) with late gadolinium enhancement
(LGE) represents the gold standard for myocardial characterization: especially in the assessment of
coronary artery disease (CAD), establishing a diagnosis of acute or chronic myocardial infarction (MI)
and above all allowing a differential diagnosis with non-ischemic causes of myocardial damage (such
as myocarditis, cardiomyopathies, etc.) [1].
In patients with severe contraindications to CMR, or with hemodynamic instability, the use of cardiac
computed tomography angiography (CCTA) with the evaluation of iodine delayed-enhancement, or
late iodine enhancement (CT-LIE), represents an alternative method to identify myocardial scars and
allowing a tissue characterization, as some studies have already shown [2,3,4].
Here we reported a clinical case report in which CT-LIE has been demonstrated an effective alternative
to perform myocardial characterization especially in complicated patients with hemodynamic
instability.