Cardiovascular MRI best modality for evaluating suspected cardiac tumors: Study

This multicenter study, published in the European Heart Journal, involved 903 patients from four institutions. Some of the key findings of the study are that:

• CMR diagnosis was accurate in 98.4% of patients in the study;

• CMR diagnosis is a powerful, independent predictor of death; and,

• This prognostic value is incremental to clinical factors.

"These data provide the first large-scale validation of the clinical practice of using CMR to exclude a cardiac tumor and to diagnose the type of tumor," said Shenoy, who is also a cardiologist with M Health Fairview. "By demonstrating high accuracy and long-term prognostic value, our results confirm that CMR can be used as a 'one-stop-shop' for this clinical indication. We anticipate our findings will shape future guidelines, appropriateness documents and health policies on this topic."

Co-authors on the paper include John D. Grizzard and Marianna Zagurovskaya from Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center; Dipan J. Shah, Mahwash Kassi and Michael J. Reardon from Houston Methodist Hospital; and Han W. Kim, Michele A. Parker and Raymond J. Kim from Duke University Medical Center.