Echocardiography (diagnostic method of choice in most cases) | |
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RV asynergic bulges or aneurysms (“triangle of dysplasia”: outflow, apex, and subtricuspid area) | |
RV regional or global enlargement with depressed systolic function | |
LV normal or with regional asynergic areas (rarely aneurysms) | |
LV systolic dysfunction (mild to moderate, rarely severe), usually without significant enlargement | |
TR with normal jet velocity at Doppler study | |
Cardiac MRI (selected cases, particularly when non-diagnostic echocardiography findings) | |
Spin-echo technique non-invasive myocardial tissue characterisation hyperintense areas > fatty infiltration | |
Cine-MRI technique RV regional or global enlargement, systolic dysfunction, wall aneurysms | |
RV endomyocardial biopsy (very selected cases) | |
May be diagnostic, allowing in vivo demonstration of RV myocardial atrophy and fatty or fibro/fatty substitution | |
Invasive, potentially dangerous (risk of perforation of thin atrophic wall) | |
False negative cases (localised disease) |
LV, left ventricle; RV, right ventricle; TR, tricuspid regurgitation; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging.