Articles
Articles are a collaborative effort to provide a single canonical page on all topics relevant to the practice of radiology. As such, articles are written and continuously improved upon by countless contributing members. Our dedicated editors oversee each edit for accuracy and style. Find out more about articles.
More than 200 results
Article
Left dominant arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy
Left dominant arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy is a variant of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy that predominantly affects the left ventricle of the heart. It may also be known as arrhythmogenic left ventricular cardiomyopathy 4.
Clinical presentation
The main clinical diagnostic f...
Article
Hibernating myocardium
Hibernating myocardium is myocardial tissue that has reduced contractility due to poor perfusion but remains viable. In ischaemic heart disease, evaluating myocardial viability is important because hibernating myocardium can recover function after revascularisation.
Pathology
Hibernating myoc...
Article
Mitral valve leaflet calcification
Mitral valve leaflet calcification or mitral leaflet calcification refers to the deposition of calcium on the mitral valvular leaflets as opposed to mitral annular calcification in the mitral annulus. It has been associated with mitral stenosis 1,2.
Epidemiology
Mitral leaflet calcification h...
Article
Sinus of Valsalva aneurysm
A sinus of Valsalva aneurysm refers to abnormal dilatation of the sinus of valsalva and is a cause of thoracic aortic dilatation. Sinus of Valsalva aneurysms arise from one of the aortic sinuses. They are either congenital or acquired.
Epidemiology
There is a male predilection (M:F ratio being...
Article
Cardiac fibroma
Cardiac fibromas, also known as cardiac fibromatosis, are benign congenital cardiac tumours that usually manifest in children.
Epidemiology
Cardiac fibromas are tumours that primarily affect children (most cases are detected in infants or in utero) with a ratio of 4:1 compared with adults 5. ...
Article
Cardiac undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma
Cardiac undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcomas are highly malignant mesenchymal tumours of the heart.
Terminology
Terms that are no longer recommended for use include ‘intimal sarcoma’, ‘undifferentiated sarcoma’ and ‘undifferentiated spindle cell sarcoma’ 1.
Epidemiology
Cardiac undifferenti...
Article
Waterston shunt
A Waterston shunt is a form of palliative surgery performed in patients with tetralogy of Fallot prior to the ability to repair the defect. It consists of a shunt formed between the ascending aorta and the right pulmonary artery.
This does not relieve the right ventricular outflow obstruction, ...
Article
Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome
The Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome describes paroxysmal tachydysrhythmias in the presence of a specific accessory pathway which allows direct electrical connection between the atria and ventricles, which usually exclusively occurs via the atrioventricular (AV) node. The accessory pathway is usua...
Article
Myocardial mapping
Myocardial mapping or parametric mapping of the heart is one of various magnetic resonance imaging techniques, which has evolved and been increasingly used in the last decade for non-invasive tissue characterisation of the myocardium 1-5. Unlike normal T1-, T2- or T2*- images, parametric mapping...
Article
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy protocol (MRI)
The MRI hypertrophic cardiomyopathy protocol encompasses a set of different MRI sequences for the cardiac assessment in case of suspected hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Note: This article aims to frame a general concept of a cardiac MRI protocol in the assessment of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or...
Article
Haemochromatosis (cardiac manifestations)
Cardiac involvement in haemochromatosis typically occurs with primary haemochromatosis, as the organ is usually spared in the secondary form of the disease.
For a general discussion, and for links to other system specific manifestations, please refer to the article on haemochromatosis.
Epidem...
Article
Eisenmenger complex
Eisenmenger complex is a specific subset of Eisenmenger syndrome, and consists of:
ventricular septal defect (VSD)
severe pulmonary arterial hypertension resulting in
shunt reversal and cyanosis
Article
60/60 sign (echocardiography)
The 60/60 sign in echocardiography refers to the coexistence of a truncated right ventricular outflow tract acceleration time (AT <60 ms) with a pulmonary arterial systolic pressure (PASP) of less than 60 mmHg (but more than 30 mmHg). In the presence of right ventricular failure, it is consisten...
Article
Diagonal branches of the left anterior descending artery
Diagonal branches of the left anterior descending coronary artery supply blood flow to the anterior and anterolateral walls of the left ventricle. There are usually denoted as D1, D2, D3, etc.
There are termed "diagonal" due to them branching from their parent vessel at acute angles. They ext...
Article
Myocardial injury
Myocardial injury is defined by an elevation of cardiac troponin values above the 99th percentile upper reference limit. It is considered a prerequisite for the diagnosis of myocardial infarction but also an entity in itself and can arise from non-ischaemic or non-cardiac conditions 1,2.
Termin...
Article
Coronary arterial dominance
Coronary arterial dominance is defined by the vessel which gives rise to the posterior descending artery (PDA), which supplies the myocardium of the inferior third of the interventricular septum.
Most hearts (80-85%) are right dominant where the PDA is supplied by the right coronary artery (RCA...
Article
Ventricular arrhythmia
Ventricular arrhythmias are potentially very dangerous cardiac arrhythmias arising from the cardiac ventricles that require immediate attention and medical care and include the following rhythms:
premature ventricular complexes
ventricular tachycardia
torsades de pointes
ventricular flutter
...
Article
Ductus arteriosus
The ductus arteriosum (DA) (or arteriosus) is the thick short conduit for blood to bypass the non-ventilated lungs in the fetus. It is located between and connects the proximal left pulmonary artery and the undersurface of the aortic arch distal to the origin of the last branch of the arch, at t...
Article
Wall motion score index (echocardiography)
Calculation of the left ventricular wall motion score index (WMSI) with transthoracic echocardiography allows the semi-quantification of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). Calculation of the LVEF with a WMSI demonstrates stronger agreement with measures obtained by cardiac MRI, the gold ...
Article
Marfan syndrome
Marfan syndrome is a multisystem connective tissue disease caused by a defect in the protein fibrillin 1, encoded by the FBN1 gene. Cardiovascular involvement with aortic root dilatation and dissection is the most feared complication of the disease.
Epidemiology
The estimated prevalence is aro...