Published in:
Open Access
01-04-2010 | Editorial comment
Left ventricular mass assessment by CMR; how to define the optimal index
Authors:
E. E. van der Wall, H. M. Siebelink, J. J. Bax
Published in:
The International Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging
|
Issue 4/2010
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Excerpt
Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) is an accurate and reliable means of evaluating cardiac morphology, and therefore very well suited for identifying and characterizing patients with various manifestations of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) [
1,
2]. For instance, CMR can resolve the question whether training-induced LVH in athletes is a physiological rather than a pathophysiological phenomenon [
3‐
5]. A meta-analysis, involving 59 studies and 1451 athletes (both endurance-trained and strength-trained athletes), showed that the athlete’s heart demonstrated normal systolic and diastolic cardiac function, implying that training-induced LVH in athletes is predominantly a physiological phenomenon [
6‐
10]. However, in pathophysiological LVH, such as in patients with hypertension and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the presence of LVH portends a poor prognosis whereby there is a negative relation between prognosis and the stage of LVH [
11‐
21]. On the other side of the spectrum, a significant decrease in LV mass, such as in patients following myocardial infarction, may also be associated with a poor prognosis as these patients are prone to the development of heart failure [
22‐
39]. …
