title: Morphologic and histologic characterization of cardiac myxomas by magnetic resonance imaging.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to assess the role of ECG-gated spin-echo (SE) magnetic resonance (MR) images, cine MR images, and gadolinium-diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (Gd-DTPA)-enhanced MR images for the morphologic and histologic diagnosis of atrial myxomas. Four patients with left atrial myxoma were imaged with a 1.5-T MR imager. The T1-weighted images and the cine MR images were obtained before injection of Gd-DTPA. After the injection of Gd-DTPA, the T1-weighted images were obtained again. Gd-DTPA-enhanced images of the myxomas were histologically compared with the extracted specimens. The tumors were represented more clearly on the cine MR images as low-intensity areas than on the SE images as high-intensity areas. On post-Gd-DTPA images, the 2 tumors were homogeneously enhanced and the other 2 were inhomogeneously enhanced. The locus of enhancement on post-Gd-DTPA images fitted with histologic myxoma or inflammation, and the unenhanced region reflected the necrosis or cystic changes in the specimens, respectively. The morphologic diagnosis of cardiac myxomas by MRI first should be done with SE images, and when the images are unclear, the cine MR images must be supplemented to depict the tumor clearly. Moreover, Gd-DTPA-enhanced MRI could elucidate histologic characteristics in myxomas.
authors.affiliation: 2nd Department of Internal Medicine, Ehime University School of Medicine, Ehime, Japan.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Matsuoka
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hamada
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Honda
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kawakami
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abe
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shigematsu
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sumimoto
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hiwada
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003287:Contrast Media; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA; D006338:Heart Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D019028:Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Cine; D008297:Male; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology; D009232:Myxoma / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009942:Organometallic Compounds; D004369:Pentetic Acid / Q000031:analogs & derivatives
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media; D009942:Organometallic Compounds; D004369:Pentetic Acid; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA