title: Cardiac assessment of patients with Becker's muscular dystrophy.
abstract: Becker's muscular dystrophy (BMD) is one of the most common muscular dystrophy syndromes. The heart is always affected by myocardial fibrosis with early involvement of the right side. Traditionally, ECG, echocardiography and stress testing have been used to evaluate these patients. Cardiac MRI, offering superior assessment of the right side and visualization of the myocardial fibrosis could become the preferred imaging modality for evaluating patients with BMD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Cardiology, Hospital of Saint Raphael, 1450 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. cionescu@srhs.org
authors.forename: Costin N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Ionescu
authors.forename: Ajoy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kapoor
authors.forename: Zenon
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Protopapas
authors.forename: Constatin B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Marcu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D018450:Disease Progression; D004562:Electrocardiography; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D020388:Muscular Dystrophy, Duchenne / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology