Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonace Imaging

Extract

[...] CARDIOVASCULAR MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING More than any other imaging technique, cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) offers the potential for dramatically changing current imaging strategies for the evaluation of patients with known or suspected cardiovascular disease. The combined attributes of superior image quality and flexibility for assessment of cardiac anatomy, ventricular function, great vessel and coronary anatomy and blood flow, myocardial viability, and myocardial perfusion give CMR tremendous potential for evaluation of the cardiovascular system. Current clinical applications of CMR are expanding rapidly, but are not "mainstream" at most institutions. [...]

[...] Although rarely difficult to diagnose from echocardiographic images, benign lipomatous hypertrophy of the interatrial septum as visualized on echocardiography may sometimes lead to the misdiagnosis of an atrial septal "tumor." The characteristic, very bright signal from fatty tissue on T1-weighted spin-echo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) readily allows for the diagnosis of this benign disorder. Pericardium and Pericardial Effusions The normal pericardium is seen as a thin black line between visceral and parietal pericardial fat on spin-echo MRI. Normal pericardial thickness is less than 3 mm. [...]

[...] Although rarely difficult to diagnose from echocardiographic images, benign lipomatous hypertrophy of the interatrial septum as visualized on echocardiography may sometimes lead to the misdiagnosis of an atrial septal "tumor." The characteristic, very bright signal from fatty tissue on T1-weighted spin-echo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) readily allows for the diagnosis of this benign disorder. Pericardium and Pericardial Effusions The normal pericardium is seen as a thin black line between visceral and parietal pericardial fat on spin-echo MRI. Normal pericardial thickness is less than 3 mm. [...]

[...] Semiautomated methods allow for delineation of the endocardial and epicardial borders with very high accuracy/reproducibility for determination of ventricular volumes, stroke volume, and ejection fraction. CMR may be especially valuable for eliciting quantitative data regarding left ventricular mass and regression of hypertrophy in response to antihypertensive therapy or aortic valve replacement. The accurate evaluation of right ventricular volumes and ejection fraction is also relatively unique to CMR. Cardiomyopathies The ability of MRI to acquire images of the entire heart in true tomographic planes makes it ideal for the evaluation of patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathies, especially patients with focal hypertrophy. [...]

[...] Although rarely difficult to diagnose from echocardiographic images, benign lipomatous hypertrophy of the interatrial septum as visualized on echocardiography may sometimes lead to the misdiagnosis of an atrial septal "tumor." The characteristic, very bright signal from fatty tissue on T1-weighted spin-echo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) readily allows for the diagnosis of this benign disorder. Pericardium and Pericardial Effusions The normal pericardium is seen as a thin black line between visceral and parietal pericardial fat on spin-echo MRI. Normal pericardial thickness is less than 3 mm. [...]