Pericardial Fat Enhancement: New Computed Tomography Biomarker Influences the Relationship Between Pericardial Fat and Coronary Artery Disease.

Purpose: Studies have shown a modest association between pericardial fat volume (PFV) and coronary artery disease (CAD), potentially mediated by local inflammation. We aimed to investigate the association between a new biomarker of pericardial fat inflammation, named pericardial fat enhancement (PFE), and the severity of CAD on coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA).

Materials And Methods: We evaluated 114 patients referred for CCTA from 2007 to 2011.

Prognostic role of MR imaging in nonischemic myocardial disease.

The role of cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) imaging as a prognostic tool in patients with ischemic heart disease is well established. However, an increasing body of data now demonstrates that cardiac MR imaging can provide prognostic information in a variety of nonischemic and diffuse myocardial diseases including myocarditis, dilated and hypertrophic cardiomyopathies, sarcoidosis, amyloidosis, and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. Cardiac MR imaging can also supply incremental information above established prognostic indicators, providing an additional tool for use in the prediction of disease progression, response to treatment, and risk stratification.

Delayed enhancement magnetic resonance imaging in nonischemic myocardial disease.

This review highlights the role of delayed enhancement magnetic resonance imaging for the diagnosis of patients with nonischemic myocardial disease. The authors discuss the use of delayed enhancement for differentiation between ischemic and nonischemic myocardial disease and for narrowing the differential diagnosis when nonischemic etiologies are suspected. In addition, special focus is given to the prognostic applications of delayed enhancement magnetic resonance imaging.