Computed tomography in tissue characterization of the myocardium.

Introduction: Magnetic resonance (MR) represents still the gold standard in myocardial imaging. There are some studies suggesting that the computed tomography (CT) might be a valid alternative for some patients (especially the ones who are unable to undergo MR). Aims: We had two aims. Aim number 1: To evaluate the ability of CT in the evaluation of delayed contrast enhancement (DCE) in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. Aim number 2: To assess the possibilities of CT originally performed for a different indication in myocardial tissue characterization. Methods: Part 1: We prospectively enrolled 17 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. All the patients underwent both cardiac CT and cardiac MR. We compared the findings of DCE on CT with the findings of DCE on MR. Part 2: We retrospectively evaluated 96 patients who underwent both CT for any indication and cardiac MR. We compared the findings of a hypodense area in the myocardium with the findings of DCE on MR. Results: Part 1: CT detected DCE in 3 patients and MR detected DCE in 6 patients. The agreement between both modalities was in v 82% cases (kappa 0.56). The sensitivity and specificity of CT were 50% and 100%, respectively and the positive predictive value was 100%. In patients with positive findings on CT, the localization of DCE was almost..