Importance of Reference Muscle Selection in Quantitative Signal Intensity Analysis of T2-Weighted Images of Myocardial Edema Using a T2 Ratio Method

Figure 2

Results for quantitative assessment of the myocardium at risk in a patient with acute anterior myocardial infarction. (a) T2-w STIR image in a basal short axis view showing the quantification of the myocardial edema performed by the visual analysis, resulting in a mass of 9.7 g. (b) The same T2-w STIR without any contour. (c) Color-coded visualization of the automated sizing of the myocardial edema using the T2 SI ratio with four different muscle groups as reference regions. Despite a small overestimation, the serratus anterior resulted the most accurate for the size of the edematous myocardium (8.6 g).