Cardiovascular MRI With Late Gadolinium Enhancement Can Predict Heart Risk in Children with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: JAMA
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common genetic cardiovascular condition. It is the leading cause of sudden cardiac death in young people and children with an annual mortality rate of 1%. However, 10% to 20% of them have a significantly higher risk of sudden cardiac death. Risk prediction is challenging because most patients with HCM (even those at high risk) show few or no symptoms. Earlier studies had shown that cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) could identify adults with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy at higher risk of sudden cardiac death, however, nobody had yet tested this technique to predict risks in younger patients.
Recently, a multi-institutional team including Jon Detterich, MD, Principal Investigator in the Heart Institute at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, investigated if adding LGE to current risk assessment models could more effectively predict sudden cardiac death in children. Current models are compiled from patient test scores and echocardiograms. But LGE can capture what is happening in specific regions of the heart. The results were published in JAMA Cardiology.
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