Case Session 03: Pericardial Disease (2018)-Pericardial constriction - how good is CMR at confirming the diagnosis?

Pericardial constriction - how good is CMR at confirming the diagnosis?

Video Transcription

Video Summary

The speaker explains that constrictive pericarditis is often missed on conventional imaging, but cardiac MRI can reveal it and guide treatment. MRI helps assess pericardial thickening, septal bounce, focal constriction, and whether surgery would help. A major emphasis is on radiofrequency tissue tagging to show whether the pericardium slips normally or adheres abnormally to the heart. Real-time imaging, phase velocity mapping, and late gadolinium enhancement can also show abnormal physiology and inflammation. The talk argues that MRI is highly accurate, sometimes better than echo or catheterization, and can even detect cases with a normal-looking pericardium.

Keywords

constrictive pericarditis

cardiac MRI

pericardial thickening

radiofrequency tissue tagging

late gadolinium enhancement