Synopsis

Keywords: Cardiovascular: Cardiac, Cardiovascular: Cardiac function, Cardiovascular: Myocardium

CMR has developed beyond anatomical imaging to provide functional assessment and myocardial tissue characterization providing a powerful diagnostic tool in cardiomyopathies. Fibrosis is the final common pathway of myocardial diseases from a variety of insults and is associated with declining ventricular function. Late gadolinium enhancement can detect focal myocardial fibrosis; while T2 mapping (edema), T1 mapping and extracellular volume (diffuse fibrosis), provide quantitative parameters that are used in the diagnosis, management and follow up of patients with non-ischemic cardiomyopathies. A shift towards these imaging parameters should provide a non-invasive serial marker to assess response to treatments and may predict outcome.