Does magnetic resonance imaging have a role in diagnosing benign intracardiac lesions?

In this study, transthoracic echocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance were compared in terms of the detection, localization, characterization and extra cardiac association of cardiac lesions to specify the value of adding CMR to TTE in diagnosing benign intracardiac lesions. Twenty nine patients ranging in age between 7 months and 80 years were enrolled in the study. Twenty five patients with suspected intracardiac lesions by TTE, in addition four patients with accidentally discovered thrombi on CMR were added to the study. CMR detected 17 non neoplastic lesions and 11 neoplastic lesions. CMR changed the diagnosis made by TTE in five cases, showed additional findings to TTE in three cases and was superior to TTE in detecting four cases of cardiac thrombi. CMR is superior to TTE in characterization of intracardiac lesions, detecting its site, size, vascularity, hemodynamics and multiplicity of the lesion with high tissue contrast. Thus it should be performed in all cases suspicious of cardiac masses as it could aid in patient management and guide for surgery. Moreover it can prevent unneeded cardiac surgery in cases of benign non-neoplastic lesions or in benign tumors with no hemodynamic significance.