Long-term safety of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging performed in the first few days after bare-metal stent implantation

Purpose: To investigate the long-term safety of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) performed one to seven days after coronary artery stent (bare metal) implantation. Materials and Methods: We analyzed 119 consecutive patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI) who underwent emergency coronary stent implantation with a bare-metal stent. CMR using a 1.5T scanner was performed on 51 patients (42.9%) at a mean of 2.7 +/- 3.1 days after stent implantation (CMR+ group), and the remaining 68 patients (57.1%) served as controls (CMR-group). The patients were followed up to six months for major adverse cardiac events. Results: The average stent size was 3.3 +/- 0.5 X 18.4 +/- 6.7 turn, and 86% of the stents were made of 316L stainless steel. There were no significant differences between the CMR+ and CMR- groups in terms of infarct features, angiographic findings, or stent characteristics. Over a mean follow-up of 4.4 +/- 2.1 months, 12 patients (10.1%) had 16 events (13.4%). Two patients had adverse events after early MRI scan (4.3%), a rate that is lower than the event rate in the patients who did not undergo MRI (16%, P = 0.04), and one of the two events was clearly not MRI related. Conclusion: CMR on a 1.5T scanner can be safely per formed within one to seven days after coronary bare-metal stent implantation and is not associated with an increased risk of adverse clinical cardiac outcomes. In the light of accumulating data, the guidelines by stent manufacturers should be revised.