title: Systematic review of non-invasive cardiovascular imaging in the diagnosis of constrictive pericarditis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Diagnosis of constrictive pericarditis (CP) can be challenging. It can be nearly impossible to distinguish CP from other causes of right heart failure. Although various imaging modalities help in the diagnosis, no test is definitive. Several reviews have addressed the role of various imaging techniques in the diagnosis of CP but a systematic review has not yet been published.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Our intention was to study the ability of various non-invasive imaging modalities to diagnose CP in patients with surgically confirmed disease and to apply our findings to develop a clinically useful diagnostic algorithm.
  
  
  METHODS
  A PubMed (NLM) search was performed with MeSH term "constrictive pericarditis". Original articles that investigated the ability of various cardiovascular imaging modalities to noninvasively diagnose surgically confirmed CP were included in our review. Investigations that included any cases without surgical confirmation were excluded.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The PubMed search yielded 3001 results with MeSH term "constrictive pericarditis" (January 8, 2016). We identified (40) studies on CP that matched our inclusion criteria. We summarized our results sorted by individual non-invasive CV imaging modalities - echocardiography, cardiac computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Under each imaging modality, we grouped our discussion based on different parameters useful in CP diagnosis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In conclusion, contemporary diagnosis of CP is based on clinical features and echocardiography. Cardiac MRI is recommended in patients where echocardiography is not diagnostic. Both cardiac MRI and CT can guide surgical planning but we prefer MRI as it provides both structural and functional information.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, MO, United States.
authors.forename: Sivakumar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ardhanari
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, MO, United States.
authors.forename: Bharath
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yarlagadda
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States.
authors.forename: Vishal
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Parikh
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Augusta University Health, Augusta, GA, United States.
authors.forename: Kevin C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Dellsperger
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, MO, United States.
authors.forename: Anand
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chockalingam
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, MO, United States.
authors.forename: Sudarshan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Balla
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, MO, United States. Electronic address: kumarse@health.missouri.edu.
authors.forename: Senthil
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kumar
mesh_terms: D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D019028:Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Cine / Q000379:methods*; D010494:Pericarditis, Constrictive / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Cardiac computed tomography; Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging; Cardiovascular imaging; Constrictive pericarditis; Echocardiography