Measurement of myocardial infarct size in preclinical studies

Ischemic heart disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Myocardial ischemia followed by reperfusion results in tissue injury termed ischemia/reperfusion injury which is characterized by decreased myocardial contractile function, occurrence of arrhythmias, and development of tissue necrosis (infarction). These pathologies are all relevant as clinical consequences of myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury and they are also important as experimental correlates and endpoints. The most critical determinant of acute and long-term mortality after myocardial infarction is the volume of the infarcted tissue. Therefore, development of cardioprotective therapies aims at reducing the size of the infarct developing due to myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury. Different techniques are available to measure myocardial infarct size in humans and in experimental settings, however, accurate determination of the extent of infarction is necessary to evaluate interventions that may delay the onset of necrosis and/or limit the total extent of infarct size during ischemia/reperfusion. This paper highlights recent advances of the different techniques to measure infarct size. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.