Methods The baseline MR examination begins with cardiac localizers. At this stage it is important to verify isocenter because if the patient is too deep in the bore then femoral vascular access sheaths are inaccessible to the operator. Through-plane phase contrast (PC) scans in the ascending aorta and main pulmonary artery follow for quantification of Qp and Qs. To avoid the need to repeat long...

BACKGROUND Determining the cause for pulmonary hypertension is difficult in many patients. Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is differentiated from pulmonary venous hypertension (PVH) by a wedge pressure (PWP)>15 mm Hg in PVH. Patients undergoing right heart catheterization for evaluation of pulmonary hypertension may be dehydrated and have reduced intravascular volume, potentially leading ...

BACKGROUND Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) remains a concern in patients with β-thalassemia major (TM) and intermedia (TI); however, studies evaluating its prevalence and risk factors using systematic confirmation on right heart catheterization are lacking. METHODS AND RESULTS This was a multicenter cross-sectional study of 1309 Italian β-thalassemia patients (mean age 36.4±9.3 years; 4...

BACKGROUND Right heart catheterization is the gold standard for assessment of pulmonary hemodynamics in patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. To date, MRI has not been able to produce precise measurements of mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP). The purpose of the study was to create a model for estimating mPAP and pulmonary vascular resistance in patients with chronic...

Background Realtime MR enables radiation free guidance for right heart catheterization (RHC). In addition to catheter navigation for sampling of invasive pressures and blood oxygen saturations, MR permits concomitant assessment of cardiac chamber volumes and cardiac output with phase contrast flow measurements. By performing repeat measurements under different physiological provocations (e.g. s...

Connective Tissue Disease (CTD) is an autoimmune disease involving connective tissues, including sjogren syndrome (pSS), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic sclerosis (SSc), mixed tissue (MCTD), lupus erythematosus (SLE), etc. [1,2]. Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) refers to a pathological condition in which the pulmonary artery pressure rises above certain threshold, causing right heart ...

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) represents an emerging pathology in modern medicine. Transthoracic echocardiography is an inexpensive and reproducible method and it is the most commonly used non-invasive diagnostic tool to asses pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) and the function of the right ventricle. Although, the right heart catheterization is still considered as t...

mission when he suddenly developed severe dyspnea and symptoms of congestive heart failure. Physical examination, ECG, x-ray examination and catheterization of the heart suggested severe mitral regurgitation with left and right heart failure. He was scheduled for operation with the diagnosis of ruptured chordae of the mitral valve with severe mitral incompetence. At operation, all chordae of th...

An unusual case of primary cardiac lymphoma presenting as restrictive cardiomyopathy with arrhythmia is reported in a 72-year-old woman who was admitted for evaluation of exertional dyspnea and palpitations. Electrocardiography (ECG) showed atrioventricular dissociation and right heart cardiac catheterization revealed a typical 'dip-and-plateau' waveform. Restrictive cardiomyopathy was suspecte...