Temporal Evolution of Myocardial Hemorrhage and Edema in Patients After Acute ST‐Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction: Pathophysiological Insights and Clinical Implications

BACKGROUND: The time course and relationships of myocardial hemorrhage and edema in patients after acute ST‐segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) are uncertain. METHODS AND RESULTS: Patients with ST‐segment elevation myocardial infarction treated by primary percutaneous coronary intervention underwent cardiac magnetic resonance imaging on 4 occasions: at 4 to 12 hours, 3 days, 10 days, and 7 months after reperfusion. Myocardial edema (native T2) and hemorrhage (T2*) were measured in regions of interest in remote and injured myocardium. Myocardial hemorrhage was taken to represent a hypointense infarct core with a T2* value <20 ms. Thirty patients with ST‐segment elevation myocardial infarction (mean age 54 years; 25 [83%] male) gave informed consent. Myocardial hemorrhage occurred in 7 (23%), 13 (43%), 11 (33%), and 4 (13%) patients at 4 to 12 hours, 3 days, 10 days, and 7 months, respectively, consistent with a unimodal pattern. The corresponding median amounts of myocardial hemorrhage (percentage of left ventricular mass) during the first 10 days after myocardial infarction were 2.7% (interquartile range [IQR] 0.0–5.6%), 7.0% (IQR 4.9–7.5%), and 4.1% (IQR 2.6–5.5%; P<0.001). Similar unimodal temporal patterns were observed for myocardial edema (percentage of left ventricular mass) in all patients (P=0.001) and for infarct zone edema (T2, in ms: 62.1 [SD 2.9], 64.4 [SD 4.9], 65.9 [SD 5.3]; P<0.001) in patients without myocardial hemorrhage. Alternatively, in patients with myocardial hemorrhage, infarct zone edema was reduced at day 3 (T2, in ms: 51.8 [SD 4.6]; P<0.001), depicting a bimodal pattern. Left ventricular end‐diastolic volume increased from baseline to 7 months in patients with myocardial hemorrhage (P=0.001) but not in patients without hemorrhage (P=0.377). CONCLUSIONS: The temporal evolutions of myocardial hemorrhage and edema are unimodal, whereas infarct zone edema (T2 value) has a bimodal pattern. Myocardial hemorrhage is prognostically important and represents a target for therapeutic interventions that are designed to preserve vascular integrity following coronary reperfusion. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL: https://clinicaltrials.gov/. Unique identifier: NCT02072850.