Left atrial fibrosis correlates with extent of left ventricular myocardial delayed enhancement and left ventricular strain in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is associated with increased left ventricular (LV) mass, decreased myocardial strain, and the presence of LV fibrosis and scar. The relationship between LV scar and fibrosis with left atrial (LA) fibrosis in the setting of HCM has not been examined. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate a correlation between the degree of LA fibrosis and LV parameters in subjects with HCM.

REPAIRit: Improving Myocardial Nulling and Ghosting Artifacts of 3D Navigator-Gated Late Gadolinium Enhancement Imaging During Arrhythmia.

Background: Cardiac 3D navigator-gated late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) imaging is important for assessment of left atrial fibrosis, but the image quality is often degraded due to arrhythmia.

Purpose: To investigate a novel 3D LGE sequence with improved myocardial nulling and reduced ghosting artifacts during arrhythmia.

Study Type: Prospective.

Reverse double inversion-recovery: Improving motion robustness of cardiac T -weighted dark-blood turbo spin-echo sequence.

Background: Cardiac dark-blood turbo spin-echo (TSE) imaging is sensitive to through-plane motion, resulting in myocardial signal reduction.

Purpose: To propose and validate reverse double inversion-recovery (RDIR)-a dark-blood preparation with improved motion robustness for the cardiac dark-blood TSE sequence.

Study Type: Prospective.

Clinical characteristics and four-year outcomes of patients in the Rhode Island Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy Registry.

The aim was to establish a registry of patients with a diagnosis of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TC) to help learn more about the characteristics, treatment strategies, and natural history of this disease. Data for patients with TC diagnosed from July 2004 to April 2008 at 2 major hospitals in Rhode Island were obtained. A data set was created that included baseline demographics and characteristics, hospital, course, and clinical outcomes.