Skip Navigation


European Heart Journal Advance Access originally published online on June 26, 2009
European Heart Journal 2009 30(18):2241-2248; doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehp252
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Supplementary Data
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
30/18/2241    most recent
ehp252v1
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Catalano, O.
Right arrow Articles by Priori, S. G.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Catalano, O.
Right arrow Articles by Priori, S. G.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author 2009. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Magnetic resonance investigations in Brugada syndrome reveal unexpectedly high rate of structural abnormalities

Oronzo Catalano1,*, Serena Antonaci1, Guido Moro2, Maria Mussida1, Mauro Frascaroli2, Maurizia Baldi2, Franco Cobelli1, Paola Baiardi5, Janni Nastoli3, Raffaella Bloise3, Nicola Monteforte3, Carlo Napolitano3 and Silvia G. Priori3,4

1 Division of Cardiology, IRCCS Fondazione Salvatore Maugeri, via Maugeri 8, 27100 Pavia, Italy
2 Division of Radiology, IRCCS Fondazione Salvatore Maugeri, Pavia, Italy
3 Molecular Cardiology, IRCCS Fondazione Salvatore Maugeri, Pavia, Italy
4 Department of Cardiology, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
5 Consorzio Valutazioni Biologiche e Farmacologiche, IRCCS Fondazione Salvatore Maugeri and University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy

Received 28 April 2008; revised 20 April 2009; accepted 25 May 2009; online publish-ahead-of-print 26 June 2009.

* Corresponding author. Tel: +39 (0) 382592611, Fax: +39 (0) 382592099, Email: oronzo.catalano{at}fsm.it

Aims: Recent data suggest that sub-clinical structural abnormalities may be part of the Brugada syndrome (BrS) phenotype, a disease traditionally thought to occur in the structurally normal heart. In this study, we carried out detailed assessment of cardiac morphology and function using cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMRI).

Methods and results: Thirty consecutive patients with BrS were compared with 30 sex- (26/4 male/female), body surface area- (±0.2 m2), and age-matched (±5 years) normal volunteers. CMRI exam included long- and short-axis ECG-gated breath-hold morphological T1-TSE sequences for fatty infiltration and cine-SSFP sequences for kinetic assessment. Fatty infiltration was not found in any subject. Patients with BrS compared with normal subjects showed higher incidence of mild right ventricle (RV) wall-motion abnormalities [15 (50%) vs. 5 (17%) subjects (P = 0.006) with reduced radial fractional shortening in more than two segments], reduction of outflow tract ejection fraction (49 ± 11% vs. 55 ± 10%; P = 0.032), enlargement of the inflow tract diameter (46 ± 4 vs. 41 ± 5 mm, P < 0.001 in short-axis; 46 ± 4 vs. 42 ± 5 mm, P = 0.001 in four-chamber long-axis view) and area (22 ± 2 vs. 20 ± 3 cm2; P = 0.050), and of global RV end-systolic volume (34 ± 10 vs. 30 ± 6 mL/m2; P = 0.031) but comparable outflow tract dimensions, global RV end-diastolic volume, left ventricle parameters, and atria areas.

Conclusion: CMRI detects a high prevalence of mild structural changes of the RV, and suggests further pathophysiological complexity in BrS. Prospective studies to assess the long-term evolution of such abnormalities are warranted.

Key Words: Brugada syndrome • Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging • Sudden cardiac death • SCN5A


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.