A study found cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging (also known as cardiac MRI) had high diagnostic accuracy and prognostic ability among patients with suspect cardiac tumors. The study was published in the European Heart Journal.

“’This was important to study because, until now, there was no great data supporting current clinical practice of using CMR to investigate these patients,’ said lead author Chetan Shenoy, MBBS, MS, an associate professor in the Department of Medicine’s Cardiovascular Division at the U of M Medical School. ‘For example, if CMR shows no cardiac tumor or mass, we do not do any further testing — we do not know if this is the right approach and how well CMR serves this purpose. In this study, we wanted to validate that clinical practice,'” wrote Erickson.

“The study found that, when compared with patients’ final diagnosis, cardiac MRI diagnosis was accurate in 98.4% of study participants. It also showed that patients with pseudomasses and benign tumors had a similar mortality rate compared with those with no masses, while those with malignant tumors and thrombus had higher mortality rates. Of 903 patients, 376 died over a median follow-up period of 4.9 years — roughly 41%, which corresponds to the percentage of patients with malignant tumors and thrombus,” wrote Yee.

“’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… ‘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,’” reported Erickson.

Sources:

Chetan Shenoy, John D Grizzard, Dipan J Shah, Mahwash Kassi, Michael J Reardon, Marianna Zagurovskaya, Han W Kim, Michele A Parker, Raymond J Kim, Cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging in suspected cardiac tumour: a multicentre outcomes study, European Heart Journal, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab635. Available online September 21, 2021, at https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab635/6372960?redirectedFrom=fulltext. Accessed October 18, 2021.

Yee, Kate. Cardiac MRI is ‘technique of choice’ for imaging suspected heart tumors. AuntMinnie.com October 8, 2021, at https://www.auntminnie.com/index.aspx?sec=sup&sub=mri&pag=dis&ItemID=133718. Accessed October 18, 2021.

Erickson, Karisa. Study establishes the value of cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging for suspected cardiac tumors. University of Minnesota Medical School. October 7, 2021, at https://med.umn.edu/news-events/study-establishes-value-cardiovascular-magnetic-resonance-imaging-suspected-cardiac-tumors. Accessed October 18,2021.