Background: Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) typically manifests during or after adolescence in sarcomere mutation carriers at risk for developing hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Guidelines recommend serial imaging of mutation carriers without LVH (G+/LVH-) to monitor for phenotypic evolution, but the optimal strategy is undefined. Compared with echocardiography (echo), cardiac MRI (CMR) offers improved endocardial visualization and potential to assess scar. However, the incremental advantage offered by CMR for early diagnosis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is unclear. Therefore, we systematically compared echo and CMR in G+/LVH- subjects.
Methods and results: A total of 40 sarcomere mutation carriers with normal echo wall thickness (<12 mm or z score <2.5 in children) underwent concurrent CMR. Mean age was 21.7±11.1 years, 55% were female. If left ventricular wall thickness seemed nonuniform, the size and location of relatively thickened segments were noted. Late gadolinium enhancement was assessed with CMR. Diagnostic agreement between echo and CMR was good (90%), although CMR measurements of left ventricular wall thickness were ≈19% lower than echo. Four subjects had mild hypertrophy (12.6-14 mm; ≤2 segments) appreciated by CMR but not echo. No subjects had late gadolinium enhancement. During median 35-month follow-up, 2 subjects developed overt hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, including 1 with mild LVH by CMR at baseline.
Conclusions: Echo is unlikely to miss substantial LVH; however, CMR identified mild hypertrophy in ≈10% of mutation carriers with normal echo wall thickness. CMR may be a useful adjunct in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy family screening, particularly in higher risk situations, or if echocardiographic images are suboptimal or suggest borderline LVH.
Keywords: cardiac MRI; cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic; echocardiography; genetics; humans.