CMR indications, safety and image quality: single-centre experience in more than 5000 patients

Abstract

Results The mean age of the patients was 50 +/17; range 9 to 100 years old. The most common clinical indications were myocarditis/cardiomyopathies (2004; 38.8%), coronary artery disease/ischemic heart disease (749; 14.5%), arrhythmogenic right-ventricular dysplasia and/or other right ventricular disease (560; 10.8%), and pulmonary vein anatomy (212; 4.1%). The indications for the remaining cases included: cardiac mass, pericardial disease, thrombus, congenital cases, and valvular disease. Gadolinium-based contrast agent was given to 97% of patients as part of their CMR protocol. Of the 10.1% (494/5165) patients that underwent stress CMR, adenosine was administered in 94.3% of cases and dobutamine was administered in 5.7% of cases. 1/466 patients (0.21%) suffered ventricular tachycardia during adenosine stress and transient, asymptomatic AV block was occasionally observed. Moderate to severe complications after contrast agent administration occurred in 8/5001 (0.16%) contrast-enhanced studies, characterized by nausea and vomiting in six (0.11%) patients and by symptoms of acute systemic allergic reaction in 2 (0.04%) patients. Image quality was good in 82.8%, moderate in 16.3%, and non-diagnostic in 1.0% of cases.