Abramge Award - R$15.000,00 - Myocardial Ischemia

A Abramge está organizando um premio no valor de R$15.000,00 com o tema isquemia miocárdica – prevenção e tratamento.

Se alguém tiver interesse em concorrer, ver o site www.abramge.com.br

Why aren't we measuring T2* more often?

I have just returned from a Latin American Conference on Iron Overload. It was staggering to note that so few sites in Latin America are performing T2* studies for studying iron overload of the liver and heart. There are a substantial number of patients with MDS, thalassemia, primary hemocromatosis and other diseases where the hematogists really want the information provided by CMR. I have heard from many hematologists that they don’t order the exam because nobody does it in their respective country. We estimate that this would increase the volume of patients by at least 1-5 patients/monthly. Considering that the average CMR site does 20-50 exams per month and you can do the math of what this loss of patients represents.

New applications - MDE pre ablation for VT

Released in JACC this week is a paper commenting on the usability of CMR pre-ablation therapy. The study is important in opening more uses of the method - in this case helping the eletrophysiologist to better prepare his ablation strategy in non-ischemic cardiomyopathy. In summary, if you have intramyocardial or epicardial scar, the success of the procedure is lower if ablation is performed through the endocardium. This is very significant information that can be given to improve the chances of success.

Read the abstract by clicking here.

Juliano

Final Results of last poll

The final results of the poll show that the majority of CMR users visiting the homepage earn from 10-50 exams/month. This is just barely enough to maintain one working exclusively on the field. Only by increasing the reach of the method will we be able to work with volumes > 100 exams/month.

Top Ten CMR Topics in 2008

The view of this author regarding the TOP TEN Topics in CMR in 2008.

The file is a PDF downloadable (1.7MB) at:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/h6goaw

The presentation is in Portuguese.


This was presented in the I Cardiovascular Imaging Department Symposium of the Brazilian Society of Cardiology in Fortaleza, Brazil.

Dra Florangel Martinez-Venezuela

Sin duda alguna un caso muy interesante publicado por nuestro colega el Dr Azevedo, que en nuestra opinión: basados en el análisis de las imagenes publicadas y la clinica del paciente pudiéramos estar sin duda alguna en la presencia de un caso de Displasia Arritmogenica del Ventrículo Derecho, que tal vez se encuentra en un estadio inicial de la enfermedad, donde todavía el paciente no ha presentado cuadros de arritmias mas complejas, tal como fue descrito por Thiene et al en 1990, donde propuso que esta patología se podía presentar en varias etapas, ya que como todos sabemos esta es una enfermedad progresiva. A pesar de que este joven pudiera estar en el primer estadio de la enfermedad sin aun presentar muerte súbita, no debemos despreciar la aparición del sincope durante el ejercicio, entre tanto las alteraciones en el holter hablen a favor de un criterio menor según Criteria for diagnosis of right ventricular dysplasia publicado en BrHeart' 1994;71:215-218 por William J McKenna et al. Por otra parte, es evidente el infiltrado de tejido graso que se observa en la punta del VD que se correlaciona con la presencia de Realce Tardío en la misma localización anatómica. Desde el punto de vista funcional y de detalles anatómicos de la caviadad ventricular derecha es difícil hacer un análisis acertado por la duración tan corta de los videos que podemos ver en la publicación del caso, sin embargo impresiona en las imagenes sagitales que hubiese un aumento del trabeculado del VD. En conclusión, en nuestra opinión nosotros solicitariamos un estudio electrofisiologico para tratar definir la presencia o no de arritmias malignas que pudieran poner en riesgo la vida del paciente y nos gustaria saber si la imagen de hiperintensidad observada en las imagenes anatomias se extienden hacia el VI, por lo que aparece en una imagen de forma mas extensa que en la otra.

En cuanto al seguimiento del paciente, si el estudio electrofisiologico no mostrara arritmias malignas reproducibles, acompañaria con RM cada 6 meses y Prueba de Esfuerzo.

Dra Florangel Martínez. Cardiólogo-Imaginología Cardiovascular.

Dr Ramón Requena. Cardiólogo-Electrofisiologo.

Centro Clínico Valentina Canabal-Barquisimeto.Venezuela.

Are we really the gold standard in functional assessment

A published paper on Eur Radiol discusses whether CMR is really the gold standard for functional assessment of a moving phantom of the heart. Interestingly, this is the second paper that questions this once "untouchable" characteristic of CMR (the other pointed contrast echo as doing a better job). Both articles cite that temporal resolution is the key for better delineation of volumes (this time dual source CT did the best job). With 3T and even faster imaging it is time to overcome this "limitation". Read the full article (OPEN ACCESS!)

European Radiology (March 2009, Vol. 19:3, pp. 577-583).

Cardiovascular Imaging Department - Brazilian Society of Cardiology

Pioneering major cardiology societies in the world, the Brazilian Society of Cardiology joined its major imaging modalities into a unique Department. The first Symposium of the newly created CID will take place this week in the magnificent city of Fortaleza, Brazil. Read the full Scientific Program at:


www.congressodepeco.com.br

New diagnostic test for ARVD

Will it substitute CMR's role in the disease? If the cost is low enough, it will surely challenge it.

Read the abstract:

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/360/11/1075?query=TOC

Is it ARVD or not???

This a case sent by Dr. Guilherme Azevedo, a cardiologist from ECOMAX, Blumenau-SC (Brazil). It is a 16 year old semi professional soccer player who had a syncope while playing. His 24hs EKG showed > 30.000 ventricular premature complexes, without sustained tachycardia. Is there delayed enhancement in the RV or is it just fat?

IX IATM International MRI Symposium. Panama City. August 19-21. 2009

This is a very special Symposium in Panama City. Promoted by Jorge Delgado, M.D. - Director Científico - IATM - Medellín Colombia

More information on www.iatm.com.co

Cardiovascular Imaging Abstracts - To be published in Atherosclerosis supplement

Abstracts accepted to the 12th Brazilian Congress of Atherosclerosis will be published a special supplement of the high impact journal Atherosclerosis. There will be a special session in the congress dedicated only to cardiovascular imaging abstracts. Deadline is April 30.

The link to the abstract submission page is:

http://tl.cardiol.br/

MRI in ACS

For those lucky enough to have an MRI adjacent to an ER, a very nice review. The difficulty of putting forward a strategy like the ones proposed in the paper is to compete with other modalities that claim the same thing like stress echo or CCT. However, I believe that for the differential diagnosis of myocarditis versus CAD, MRI is unbeatable in an acute setting. (Click on the image to read the abstract).

Cardiac Motion Review

A very elegant review of cardiac motion has just been published in Radiology. The articles summarizes many of the problematic issues we face we CMR regarding heart motion. Read the abstract at

http://radiology.rsnajnls.org/cgi/content/abstract/250/2/331

Motion in Cardiovascular MR Imaging

Andrew D. Scott, MSc, Jennifer Keegan, PhD, and David N. Firmin, PhD


Radiology 2009;250:331-351

Welcome to the SCMR-LAC Blog. We hope this space will be an online sharing place among all the CMR community. Please feel free to send comments and post difficult cases to be discussed. Anyone can post comments as anonymous. If you want to post a new message (not only comment on the posted ones), please send an email to one of the administrators: Florangel Martinez (Venezuela), Juliano Lara Fernandes (Brasil), Lilia Serra (Mexico) or Ricardo Obregon (Argentina).

All the administrators will try to update the site at least every couple of days with important news and releases of the CMR world. Keep coming back to check on these latest news.

Finally, feel free to post comments or messages in any language you choose (English, Spanish or Portuguese). Use Google Translator if you have any difficulty interpreting any messages posted in different languages. We will also try to translate the most important topics every once in a while.

Saludos/Saudações!