Anatol J Cardiol. Ahead of Print: AJC-32034 | DOI: 10.14744/AnatolJCardiol.2024.4314

Role of Cardiac Magnetic Resonance in the Assessment of Patients with Premature Ventricular Contractions: A Narrative Review

Stefan Ailoaei¹, Laurentiu Sorodoc², Carina Ureche¹, Gabriel Sandu³, Nicolae Sitari³, Alexandr Ceasovschih², Mihaela Grecu³, Radu Andy Sascau¹, Cristian Statescu^1
1Department of Cardiology, Institute for Cardiovascular Diseases, Iași, Romania;University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iași, Romania
²University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iași, Romania;Internal Medicine Clinic, Emergency Clinical County Hospital, Iași, Romania
³Department of Cardiology, Institute for Cardiovascular Diseases, Iași, Romania

Premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) are a common finding in clinical practice, requiring a full diagnostic work-up in order to exclude an underlying cardiomyopathy. Still, in a substantial proportion of patients, these investigations do not identify any substrate, and the PVCs are labelled as idiopathic. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) has proven in the last decades as the method of choice for the exploration of patients with cardiomyopathies, since it can identify subtle changes in the myocardial tissue and help with risk stratification. In patients with idiopathic PVCs and a high PVC burden, several studies report the presence of late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) at CMR, which can offer additional diagnostic and prognostic benefits, as well as assistance in catheter ablation procedures, as the risk for adverse cardiac and risk for arrhythmic events events is higher compared to patients without scar. This paper focuses on the impact of the presence of LGE in patients with idiopathic PVCs, reviewing all the relevant studies published so far, including randomized controlled clinical trials, prospective or retrospective cohort studies, case series and case reports as well as systematic reviews.

Keywords: Premature ventricular contractions, cardiac magnetic resonance, late gadolinium enhancement, risk stratification

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