Cardiac magnetic resonance serves as a gold standard for left atrial functional analysis and provides unique in vivo tissue assessment compared to echocardiography.
What is the role of cardiac magnetic resonance in the assessment of the left atrium compared to echocardiography?
Cardiac magnetic resonance serves as a gold standard for detailed left atrial functional and structural assessment, overcoming limitations of echocardiography.
The left atrium plays an integral role in cardiac performance. Data regarding the left atrial size, volume, function, and structure are clinically important in the management of patients with different diagnoses. Moreover, left atrial size and function were recognized as robust predictors of poor outcome across a broad range of cardiac diseases. These data are usually obtained using echocardiography. MRI can be used as an alternative tool or in clinical or experimental situations when more exact and detailed assessment is required. In the left atrial functional analysis, MRI is considered to be a gold standard technique that overcomes many of the limitations associated with echocardiographic assessment. In comparison with the other techniques, late gadolinium enhancement provides a unique opportunity to assess left atrial myocardial tissue in vivo. Complex cardiac magnetic resonance data may help to make a diagnosis, determine a prognosis and provide an impact on therapeutic actions.This review summarizes the potential role of cardiac magnetic resonance in left atrium assessment, with special emphasis on recent data and the potential future research directions.
Panovský et al. (Tue,) conducted a review in Cardiac diseases. Cardiac magnetic resonance (MRI) vs. Echocardiography was evaluated. Cardiac magnetic resonance serves as a gold standard for left atrial functional analysis and provides unique in vivo tissue assessment compared to echocardiography.