Cardiovascular magnetic resonance reveals similar damage to the heart of patients with Becker and limb-girdle muscular dystrophy but no cardiac symptoms.
Cardiac involvement in patients with a sarcoglycanopathy (limb-girdle muscular dystrophy) has been described previously; however, this is the first cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) study in such a patient demonstrating an interesting pattern of myocardial damage using late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) imaging. Moreover, the wall motion abnormality and the subepicardial pattern of LGE in this patient with a sarcoglycanopathy is in agreement with the findings in another patient with Becker muscular dystrophy. The predominance of LGE in the subepicardial layers of the left ventricular inferolateral wall suggests that such a myocardial damage pattern represents a nonspecific cardiac phenotype in response to exaggerated mechanical stress in this region, at least in patients with a sarcoglycanopathy or dystrophinopathy.
Division of Cardiology, Robert-Bosch-Krankenhaus, Stuttgart, Germany. ali.yilmaz@rbk.de
Ali
A
Yilmaz
Hans-Jürgen
HJ
Gdynia
Heiko
H
Mahrholdt
Udo
U
Sechtem
D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D003287:Contrast Media; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D049288:Muscular Dystrophies, Limb-Girdle / Q000150:complications*; D020388:Muscular Dystrophy, Duchenne / Q000150:complications*; D055815:Young Adult
D003287:Contrast Media; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA