title: Detection of myocardial involvement in patients with sarcoidosis applying T2-weighted, contrast-enhanced, and cine magnetic resonance imaging: initial results of a prospective study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess myocardial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings in sarcoidosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cardiac assessment was prospectively performed in patients with sarcoidosis and included physical examination, electrocardiogram, echocardiography, thallium-201 myocardial scintigraphy, and coronary angiography if coronary disease was suspected. T2-weighted black-blood single-shot and inversion recovery fast spin echo, functional gradient echo, and T1-weighted gadolinium-DTPA-enhanced cardiac MRI examinations were performed in 40 patients while other cardiac disease was excluded.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results of the MRI images were normal in cardiac-asymptomatic stage I or Lofgren syndrome patients (n = 4). Among the patients with cardiac-asymptomatic multiple organ sarcoidosis, 17 of 31 patients (54%) had MRI myocardial abnormalities similar to those observed in five patients with cardiac symptoms: nodular peripheral increased intramyocardial signal intensity on both T2-weighted and contrast-enhanced images (n = 5), focal or patchy increased signal on contrast-enhanced images with or without myocardial thickening (n = 10), and focal increased signal only on T2-weighted images with or without myocardial thinning (n = 2). Focal contractility abnormalities were noticed in nine patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These preliminary results emphasize the occurrence of subclinical myocardial MRI abnormalities in patients with ongoing systemic sarcoidosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Université René Descartes, Hôpital Cochin, 27 rue du Fg Saint Jacques, 75679 Paris Cedex 14, France. olivier.vignaux@cch.ap-hop-paris.fr
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Vignaux
authors.forename: Robin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dhote
authors.forename: Denis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Duboc
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Blanche
authors.forename: Jean-Yves
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Devaux
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Weber
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Legmann
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D009202:Cardiomyopathies / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012507:Sarcoidosis / Q000473:pathology*