Cardiovascular magnetic resonance of cardiac tumors and masses
Marco Gatti, Tommaso D’Angelo, Giuseppe Muscogiuri, Serena Dell’Aversana, Alessandro Andreis, Andrea Carisio, Fatemeh Darvizeh, Davide Tore, Gianluca Pontone, Riccardo Faletti
Abstract
infective endocarditis or thrombi). The modern multi-modality imaging techniques has a key role not only for the initial assessment and differential diagnosis but also for management and surveillance of the cardiac masses. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) allows an optimal non-invasive localization of the lesion, providing multiplanar information on its relation to surrounding structures. Moreover, with the additional feature of tissue characterization, CMR can be highly effective to distinguish pseudomasses from masses, as well as benign from malignant lesions, with further differential diagnosis of the latter. Although histopathological assessment is important to make a definitive diagnosis, CMR plays a key role in the diagnosis of suspected cardiac masses with a great impact on patient management. This literature review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of cardiac masses, from clinical and imaging protocol to pathological findings.