Visualizing Heart Attacks

3 panel image showing different methods of viewing the heart.

Panel A: An illustration showing how MRI can take cross-sectional images at any angle through the body. Panel B: A 3-D angiogram examining blood vessels coming off the aorta, the artery that connects the output of the heart to the rest of the body. Panel C: Three MRIs of the heart of a patient with a small heart attack, and who has much more heart muscle at risk.NHLBI

Researchers at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) are developing and validating approaches for using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in cardiovascular applications and scientific investigations. Their laboratory runs a dedicated cardiovascular MRI scanner in Building 10 of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and a second scanner situated near the emergency room of Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland.

About 6 million Americans visit the emergency room each year complaining of chest pain, which may or may not be a sign they are experiencing a heart attack. NHLBI-led studies have found that advanced MRI technology can detect heart attacks in people with chest pain more rapidly and accurately than traditional methods.

This work promises to lay the foundation for what may be a dramatic change in how heart attacks are diagnosed. Because patients will receive treatment more quickly, researchers say cardiac MRIs might save costs as well as lives.

This page last reviewed on August 20, 2015