Background Delineation of diseased and normal tissue is fundamental to identifying cardiac pathology. Studies suggest that parametric extracellular volume fraction (ECV) imaging is superior to conventional delayed enhancement for detection of diffuse, global myocardial disease. Conversely, the sensitivity of ECV for the detection of focal disorders is unclear. This may be important for subendoc...

Background Measurement of native T1 and extracellular volume fraction (ECV) allow quantification of diffuse myocardial fibrosis. Normal references ranges are not definitively established. The concept of increasing fibrosis with age is widely held, despite a lack of supportive evidence from tissue studies some of which say the opposite (Olivetti 1991) or point to other age changes eg myocardial ...

Background Changes in left ventricular compliance caused by diffuse fibrosis after MI may result in diastolic dysfunction and left atrial enlargement. We sought to test the hypothesis that left atrial volume is associated with ECV (a marker of diffuse myocardial fibrosis) during the sub-acute phase of infarction and can predict the increase of ECV during the ensuing months of infarct healing. W...

Background Accumulation of diffuse myocardial fibrosis / extracellular volume (ECV) in the myocardium is common to various cardiac diseases and is associated with an unfavorable prognosis. Various cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) T1 mapping techniques have recently been proposed for the quantification of ECV, including: 1. Modified Look-Locker Inversion recovery (MOLLI) T1 mapping including cal...

BACKGROUND Myocardial fibrosis is a hallmark of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and a potential substrate for arrhythmias and heart failure. Sarcomere mutations seem to induce profibrotic changes before left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) develops. To further evaluate these processes, we used cardiac magnetic resonance with T1 measurements on a genotyped HCM population to quantify myocardial e...

BACKGROUND Patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (AF) who undergo electrical cardioversion (ECV) tend to be younger and have less comorbidity. Long-term anticoagulation after ECV should be based on thromboembolic risk. We sought to study the long-term incidence of thromboembolic events (TE), factors related to TE and compare the predictive value of the CHADS2and CHA2DS2-VASc scores in t...

BACKGROUND Myocardial fibrosis quantified by myocardial extracellular volume fraction (ECV) and left ventricular mass (LVM) index (LVMI) measured by cardiovascular magnetic resonance might represent independent and opposing contributors to ECG voltage measures of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). Diffuse myocardial fibrosis can occur in LVH and interfere with ECG voltage measures. This phenom...

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Background Myocardial fibrosis (MF) is a common endpoint in the majority pathological mechanisms affecting cardiac muscle, ultimately resulting failure. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) with gadolinium-based contrast agent and T1 mapping technique able to deliver non-invasive quantification extracellular volume (ECV) expans...

Direct current electrical cardioversion (DC-ECV) is the preferred treatment for the termination of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF) that occurs during radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of supraventricular tachycardias (SVT). Intravenous Ibutilide may be an alternative option in this setting. Thirty-four out of 386 patients who underwent SVT-RFA presented paroxysmal AF during the procedure and we...

AIM Cardiac involvement with progressive myocardial fibrosis leading to dilated cardiomyopathy is a major cause of death in muscular dystrophy patients. Extracellular volume fraction (ECV) measurement based on T1-mapping pre- and post-contrast promises the detection of early 'diffuse' myocardial fibrosis that cannot be depicted by conventional contrast-imaging based on late gadolinium enhanceme...