Question:

Which of the following will be seen on cardiac biopsy of a patient who had a post-MI reperfusion injury?

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Reperfusion floods dying myocytes with calcium, hypercontracting the sarcomeres into dense pink bands.
Updated On: Jun 23, 2026
  • Waviness of fibres
  • Eosinophilic contraction bands
  • Neutrophils in cardiac cells
  • Swelling of cells
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The Correct Option is B

Solution and Explanation

Correct answer: Eosinophilic contraction bands.
Step 1: When blood flow is restored to irreversibly injured myocytes, a flood of calcium pours across leaky plasma membranes. This calcium drives intense actin-myosin interaction, hypercontracting the sarcomeres.
Step 2: The hypercontracted sarcomeres appear as dense, eosinophilic transverse bands, called contraction band necrosis. This is the hallmark of reperfusion injury.
Step 3: Why not the others. Waviness of fibres is the earliest light-microscopy change of ischaemia (0.5 to 4 hours), not specific to reperfusion. Neutrophil infiltration peaks at 1 to 3 days as the inflammatory phase, again not the reperfusion marker. Cellular swelling is a generic reversible ischaemic change.
Ref: Robbins, ischaemic heart disease.
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