Value of cardiovascular magnetic resonance in patients with suspected inflammatory pericarditis

Background Although the diagnosis of inflammatory pericarditis is usually presumed on a combination of clinical signs and noninvasive testing, especially echocardiography, the presence and extent of pericardial inflammation as such cannot be visualized. Alternatively cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) has shown appealing to study the pathologic pericardium. In this study we sought to explore the findings and the diagnostic value of cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) in patients with clinically suspected inflammatory pericarditis.