Prevalence and Evolution of Susceptibility-Weighted Imaging Lesions in Patients With Artificial Heart Valves.

Background In patients with mechanical heart valves, cerebral susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) lesions on magnetic resonance imaging, postulated to be caused by degenerative metallic abrasion, are frequently referred to as valve abrasion. It remains unclear whether valve implantation not requiring cardiopulmonary bypass or biological heart valves also shows those lesions. Methods and Results Two blinded readers rated SWI lesions and cerebral amyloid angiopathy probability according to established criteria on brain magnetic resonance imaging pre- and postinterventionally.