The SCMR Translations Committee recently completed translating the JCMR article,
CMR inflammatory vasculitis, into Spanish. The article, originally published in 2012, shows how n
oninvasive imaging with cardiovascular magnetic resonance has contributed to improved and earlier diagnosis. The Spanish version was translated by Ricardo Obregón, and Lilia M. Sierra-Galán from the committee.
Myocardial Perfusion CMR: Optimized Dual Sequence and Reconstruction for Quantification
Quantification of myocardial blood flow requires knowledge of the amount of contrast agent in the myocardial tissue and the arterial input function (AIF) driving the delivery of this contrast agent. Accurate quantification is challenged by the lack of linearity between the measured signal and contrast agent concentration. This work characterizes sources of non-linearity and presents a systematic approach to accurate measurements of contrast agent concentration in both blood and myocardium.
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Cardiac MRI vs. PET for the Evaluation of Cardiac Sarcoidosis: Consider MRI First
Appropriately diagnosing and treating cardiac sarcoidosis remains an important goal because cardiac involvement may occur in up to 25% of patients with sarcoidosis, the large majority of whom may not clinically manifest cardiac symptoms. Yet accurately diagnosing cardiac sarcoidosis remains challenging due to limitations of available clinical criteria and the low yield of endomyocardial biopsy. As a result, there is growing interest in the use of noninvasive advanced imaging techniques, such as cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET), to evaluate patients with suspected or known cardiac sarcoidosis. This viewpoint will summarize the evidence in support of using CMR for the evaluation of cardiac sarcoidosis.
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Stress Perfusion CMR in Patients With Known and Suspected CAD
Stress-perfusion cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is increasingly used in daily practice for ischemia detection. However, there is insufficient evidence about the ischemia burden that identifies patients who benefit from revascularization versus those with a good prognosis who receive drugs only. This study sought to determine the ischemia threshold and additional prognostic factors that identify patients for safe deferral from revascularizations in a large cohort of all-comer patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease (CAD).
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Association Between Mid-Wall Late Gadolinium Enhancement and Sudden Cardiac Death in Patients with Dilated Cardiomyopathy and Mild and Moderate Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction
Current guidelines only recommend the use of an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) for the primary prevention of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in those with a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF)<35%. However, registries of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests demonstrate that 70-80% of such patients have a LVEF>35%. Patients with a LVEF>35% also have low competing risks of death from non-sudden causes. Therefore, those at high-risk of SCD may gain longevity from successful ICD therapy. We investigated whether late gadolinium enhancement cardiovascular magnetic resonance (LGE-CMR) identified patients with DCM without severe LV systolic dysfunction at high-risk of SCD. Read full article >>
