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Contact us at jlaraf@fcm.unicamp.br to participate - Download the Instructional Manual here

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May 31, 2010

CMR Software


3rd party software still lack behind vendor provided code. The good news is that we now have so many options to choose from, a significant change from a few years ago. Competition is king for this improvement.

May 26, 2010

TUMOR, TROMBO O VEGETACION DE AURICULA IZQUIERDA ?






CASO DE FLORANGEL MARTÍNEZ: Se trata de lactante menor de 7 meses de edad, quien tiene como antecedente 3 procesos virales desde su nacimiento hasta la actualidad, necesitando en el último el uso de antibiotioterapia. A los 5 meses de su nacimiento comenzó con dificultad para succionar. Fue valorado por cardiología pediátrica quien realiza el diagnóstico de miocardiopatía dilatada. Fue referida a nuestra institución para realizar una RM cardiaca para determinar la causa de la miocardiopatía. En el momento que la paciente es traída al estudio, la madre refiere 3 días de evolución con fiebre de 39º c. Cuál es el diagnóstico?

May 25, 2010

The Role of Multimodality Imaging in the Management of Pericardial Disease



David Verhaert, MD; Ruvin S. Gabriel, MBChB; Douglas Johnston, MD; Bruce W. Lytle, MD; Milind Y. Desai, MD and Allan L. Klein, MD
From the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio.

Key Words: pericardial disease • echocardiography • CT • CMR • multimodality imaging
Pericardial pathology is commonly encountered in clinical practice and may present either as an isolated process or in association with other systemic disorders. Recognizing pericardial pathology can be relatively straightforward, particularly if the clinical manifestation is typical (eg, the patient with acute pericarditis and an audible friction rub reporting retrosternal pain, exacerbated by inspiration or in the supine position) or when an associated disease process gives a direct clue to the diagnosis (eg, the finding of a complex pericardial effusion in a patient with a known malignancy). In these situations, the diagnostic pathway can be limited to a relatively small sequence of tests to basically confirm the initial clinical suspicion.1
However, pericardial disease can also result in nonspecific symptoms and equivocal physical findings. When the initial tests of choice turn out to be nondiagnostic or the course of the disease is prolonged, pericardial disease may cause considerable diagnostic dilemmas. Furthermore, established diagnostic techniques may not visualize the full extent of the pericardial disease process. In such difficult clinical situations, an integrated multimodality imaging approach may provide incremental value. Unfortunately, current guidelines do not address the role of a multimodality approach in the difficult to manage pericardial patient.1 This review will therefore discuss the potential role of different imaging modalities in the diagnosis and management of pericardial disorders, with a specific focus on what constitutes a rational multimodality imaging approach.

Circ Cardiovasc Imaging. 2010;3:333-343

May 17, 2010

RV and Pumonary Circulation Review


A very comprehensive review puting CMR in context with other imaging modalities in the assessment of the RV and pulmonary circulation. Published in the Revista Española de Cardiologia.

The full text in Spanish/English can be found here.

May 14, 2010

First-Pass and Steady-State MR Angiography of Thoracic Vasculature in Children and Adolescents

Claas P. Naehle, MD*, Michael Kaestner, MD, Andreas Müller, MD*, Winfried W. Willinek, MD*, Juergen Gieseke, PhD, Hans H. Schild, MD*, Daniel Thomas, MD*,*

* Department of Radiology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
Department of Pediatric Cardiology and Congenital Heart Disease, Deutsches Kinderherzzentrum, Sankt Augustin, Germany
Philips Medical Systems, Hamburg, Germany

* Reprint requests and correspondence: Dr. Daniel Thomas, Department of Radiology, University of Bonn, Sigmund-Freud-Strasse 25, 53105 Bonn, Germany (Email: daniel.thomas@ukb.uni-bonn.de).

Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) is an established noninvasive imaging modality for detection and evaluation of vascular pathologies in children with congenital heart disease. Standard first-pass (FP)–MRA uses a 3-dimensional MRA sequence with an extracellular contrast agent, in which spatial resolution is limited by breath-hold duration, and image quality (IQ) is limited by motion artifacts. The purpose of this study was to compare the diagnostic confidence, IQ, and image artifacts of standard FP-MRA to a high-resolution, motion compensated steady-state (SS)–MRA of the thoracic vasculature in children and adolescents with congenital heart disease using a blood-pool contrast agent (gadofosveset trisodium). SS-MRA of the thoracic vasculature (technically successful in 90% of patients) offers superior diagnostic confidence and IQ compared with FP-MRA and shows fewer motion-related image artifacts. In addition, SS-MRA revealed findings missed by FP-MRA. Therefore, SS-MRA may prove specifically beneficial for imaging of thoracic vessels that are small and/or subject to motion.

Key Words: heart • cardiac magnetic resonance • angiography • gadofosveset trisodium • pediatric

Am Coll Cardiol Img, 2010; 3:504-513

May 11, 2010

Phase Contrast: just use it


Seems that most people use PC for flow analysis despite almost half the voter limiting it only for a few cases. I believe this to be one of the most underused techniques in CMR and where we fail substantially in not providing more clinical use of the sequences.

May 5, 2010

3rd Pan American Thalassaemia Conference - Buenos Aires

What is an announcement of a Thalassemia conference doing in a Latin American CMR site?

Well, this is the third edition of the most important event in this disease in Latin America and CMR has always had a central spot in the conference. This is to emphasize how important the technique may represent if it adds something unique to a disease or syndrome.

More info on the agenda in: http://www.abrale.org.br/docs/hotsite_abrastaingl.html

We hope to post news from the conference as soon as we're back.