CardiomyopathySignificance of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Apical Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy
Section snippets
Methods
Thirteen consecutive patients with a suspicion or diagnosis of apical HC on the basis of electrocardiographic and/or echocardiographic findings were prospectively studied with MRI. The diagnosis of spadelike apical HC was based on the published criteria, which include an apical wall thickness ≥15 mm, a ratio ≥1.3 of anterior LV short-axis end-diastolic thickness at the apical level to the basal level, and the presence of spadelike morphology on visual inspection of MRI long-axis images by 2
Results
Our study population consisted of 13 consecutive Caucasian patients (8 men, mean age 55 ± 14 years) with a diagnosis or suspicion of apical HC (Table 1). All patients were referred to our center to undergo echocardiography to investigate an abnormal electrocardiogram. All but 1 patient presented electrocardiographic alterations of the ventricular repolarization in the anterolateral leads in the form of T-wave inversion, with a mean maximum negative T wave of 7.0 ± 3.9 mm. One patient (patient
Discussion
Abnormal electrocardiographic features are often the only disease manifestation in patients with apical HC. Although it is a well-described entity, the diagnosis may frequently be missed using conventional imaging techniques. In line with previous observations7 92% of our patients showed electrocardiographic alterations of the ventricular repolarization in the anterolateral leads, 69% of them with giant inverted T waves, thus confirming the usefulness of electrocardiography as a screening
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