MRI and MDCT are emerging as essential tools for the comprehensive diagnostic work-up, tissue characterization, and risk stratification of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy.
Magnetic resonance imaging and multidetector computed tomography are new imaging methods that have much to offer clinicians caring for patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. In this article we briefly describe the clinical, pathophysiological and histological aspects of dilated cardiomyopathy. Then we discuss in detail the use of both imaging methods for measurement of chamber size, global and regional function, for myocardial tissue characterisation, including myocardial viability assessment, and determination of arrhythmogenic substrate, and their emerging role in cardiac resynchronisation therapy. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13244-011-0101-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Slavich et al. (Wed,) studied this question.