Myocardial fibrosis detection in arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy by 3.0T magnetic resonance imaging

HUANG Jun; WU Shu-lin; LIU Hui; FANG Xian-hong; TAN Shao-heng

摘要：Background Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy (ARVD/C) is characterized by fi-bro-fatty replacement of the right ventricle. However, the feasibility and significance of myocardial fibrosis detec-ted by delayed enhancement (DE) using 3.0T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in. ARVD/C is seldomly studied. Methods Twenty-seven consecutive patients were prospectively evaluated for ARVD/C. Magnetic reso-nance imaging was performed on a 3.0T scanner. Ten minutes after intravenous administration of 0.2 mmoL/kg of gadodiamide, DE-MRI was obtained. Diagnosis of ARVD/C was based upon the Task Force criteria and in-cluded MRI findings. Results Seventeen(59%) of 27 patients met the Task Force criteria for ARVD/C. Right ven-tricle DE was found in all (100%) ARVD/C patients compared with none (0%) of the 10 patients without ARVD/C (P <0.001). Additional left ventricular DE was found in 8/17 ARVD/C patients while without left ventricular mor-phological and functional abnormalities detected by echocardiography or MRI. Conclusions DE using 3.0T MRI could effectively detect myocardial fibrosis in the right and left ventricular myocardinm in ARVD/C patients. Detection of myocardial fibrosis may have an important clinical significance in ARVD/C diagnosis. Histological left ventricle in-volvement may be easily missed by echocardiography.