Role of Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Patients with Idiopathic Ventricular Arrhythmias.

Role of Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Patients with Idiopathic Ventricular Arrhythmias. Curr Cardiol Rev. 2018 Sep 24;: Authors: Muser D, Santangeli P, Selvanayagam JB, Nucifora G Abstract Ventricular Arrhythmias (VAs) may present with a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations ranging from mildly symptomatic frequent premature ventricular contractions to life-threatening events such as sustained ventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation and sudden cardiac death. Myocardial scar plays a central role in the genesis and maintenance of re-entrant arrhythmias which are commonly associated with SHD such as ischemic heart disease, healed myocarditis and non-ischemic cardiomyopathies. However, the arrhythmogenic substrate may remain unclear in up to 50% of the cases after a routine diagnostic workup comprehensive of 12-lead surface ECG, transthoracic echocardiography and coronary angiography/computed tomography. Whenever any abnormality cannot be identified, VAs are referred as to "idiopathic". In the last decade, cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging has acquired a growing role in the identification and characterization of myocardial arrhythmogenic substrate, not only being able to accurately and reproducibly quantify biventricular function, but, more importantly, providing information about the presence of myocardial structural abnormalities such as myocardial fatty replacement, myocardial oedema, and necrosis/ fibrosis...
Source: Current Cardiology Reviews - Category: Cardiology Tags: Curr Cardiol Rev Source Type: research