Determination of viable myocardium through delayed enhancement cardiac magnetic resonance imaging combined with ¹⁸F-FDG PET myocardial perfusion/metabolic imaging before CABG

Purpose: Study aims to investigate the consistency of delayed enhancement cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (DE-CMR) and ¹⁸F-FDG PET myocardial imaging in evaluating myocardial viability before CABG. Methods: The study analyzed data from 100 patients who were examined with DE-CMR, PET imaging, and echocardiography before and after CABG. All subjects were followed up for 6–12 month post- CABG. Results: DE-CMR and PET imaging have high consistency (90.1%; Kappa value = 0.71, p < 0.01) in determining myocardial viability. The degree of delayed enhancement was negatively correlated with the improvement in myocardial contractile function in this segment after revascularization (P < 0.001). The ratio of scarred myocardial segments and total DE score was significantly lower in the improvement group than non-improvement group. Multivariate regression identified that hibernating myocardium (OR = 1.229, 95%CI: 1.053–1.433, p = 0.009) was influencing factor of LVEF improvement after CABG. Conclusion: Both imaging techniques are consistent in evaluating myocardial viability. Detecting the number of hibernating myocardium by PET is also important to predict the left heart function improvement after CABG.