News | Cardiac Imaging | October 21, 2019

Swiss study uses 15-year MRI data to assess likelihood of coronary artery disease-related death and heart failure

Greater Left Ventricular Mass Increases Risk of Heart Failure

October 21, 2019 — Elevated left ventricular mass, known as left-ventricular hypertrophy, is a stronger predictor of coronary artery disease-related death and heart failure than coronary artery calcium score, according to a new study published in the journal Radiology.[1]

In the study led by Nadine Kawel-Boehm, M.D., a senior staff radiologist at Hospital Graubünden in Chur, Switzerland, a team of researchers analyzed data collected in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. MESA is an ongoing, multi-center study of a diverse, population-based sample of 6,814 men and women age 45-84 with no known heart disease.

According to Kawel-Boehm, there is little research on predicting the long-term risk of cardiovascular events in ethnically diverse patients who have magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-identified left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy, a condition in which the muscle mass of the heart’s main pumping chamber is increased.

“Previous studies have used ECG or echocardiography, which have lower sensitivity in the diagnosis of LV hypertrophy, and typically follow patients for only several years,” she said. “The MESA study used MRI, which is the gold standard for quantifying LV mass, and had a long follow-up of 15 years.”

The researchers studied otherwise healthy individuals from the community in the MESA study.   4,988 MESA participants underwent a baseline cardiac MRI between 2000 and 2002 and participated in follow-up over a 15-year period. MRI showed that 247 participants in the study group had LV hypertrophy.

The mean age of all participants at baseline was 62 years, and 52 percent were women. Thirty-nine percent were white, 13 percent were Asian, 26 percent were African American and 22 percent were Hispanic.

At the 15-year follow-up, the research team found that 290 patients had a significant coronary heart disease (CHD) event, including 207 myocardial infarctions (heart attacks) and 95 CHD deaths. Cardiovascular disease-related deaths occurred in 57 patients, and 215 patients had heart failure.

A statistical analysis of the data demonstrated that LV hypertrophy was an independent predictor of significant CHD events, including myocardial infarction, coronary artery disease-related death and heart failure.

According to the analysis, 22 percent of the study participants with LV hypertrophy had a significant CHD event, compared to 6 percent of participants without LV hypertrophy.

Patients with LV hypertrophy had 4.3 times the risk of coronary artery disease-related death compared to participants without LV hypertrophy. Deaths from coronary and non-coronary related cardiovascular causes were more strongly related to LV hypertrophy than to coronary artery calcium scoring done with a CT scan.

“In contrast to the widely used coronary artery calcium by CT, which measures a condition not known to regress under medical therapy, an elevated LV mass is potentially reversible under treatment,” Kawel-Boehm said.

As a result of the long length of the study follow-up, Kawel-Boehm said the researchers were able to determine that the risk of cardiovascular events began to increase in participants with LV hypertrophy particularly after five years.

“Our results provide further evidence and motivation for regular follow up and management of individuals with left ventricular hypertrophy,” she said. “A higher LV mass quantified by imaging may matter more in some instances than a high calcium score.”

For more information: www.pubs.rsna.org/journal/radiology

 

Reference

1. Kawel-Boehm N., Kronmal R., Eng J., et al. Left Ventricular Mass at MRI and Long-term Risk of Cardiovascular Events: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). Radiology, published online Aug. 27, 2019. doi: 10.1148/radiol.2019182871


Related Content

News | Breast Imaging

July 7, 2025 — SimonMed Imaging, one of the largest outpatient medical imaging providers in the United States, has ...

Time July 08, 2025
arrow
News | Prostate Cancer

June 26, 2025 – Quibim, a global provider of quantitative medical imaging solutions, has launched AI-QUAL, a new feature ...

Time June 26, 2025
arrow
News | Image Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT)

June 25, 2025 — Royal Philips and Indiana-based Methodist Hospitals recently announced the healthcare provider’s ...

Time June 25, 2025
arrow
News | PET-CT

June 23, 2025 — GE HealthCare’s commitment to advancing precision care in cardiology through its molecular imaging ...

Time June 23, 2025
arrow
News | Cardiac Imaging

May 20, 2025 — Royal Philips has launched the RADIQAL (Radiation Dose and Image Quality Trial) trial. This multicenter ...

Time May 27, 2025
arrow
News | Pediatric Imaging

May 13, 2025-- GE HealthCare recently announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a pediatric ...

Time May 20, 2025
arrow
News | Artificial Intelligence

April 16, 2025 — An artificial intelligence (AI) program trained to review images from a common medical test can detect ...

Time April 16, 2025
arrow
News | Pediatric Imaging

April 10, 2025 — Cincinnati Children’s and GE HealthCare will form a strategic research program focused on driving ...

Time April 10, 2025
arrow
News | Radiology Imaging

Jan. 15, 2025 — University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Department of Radiology & Biomedical Imaging and GE ...

Time January 27, 2025
arrow
News | Contrast Media

Jan. 10, 2025 – Bayer has announced positive topline results of the Phase III QUANTI studies evaluating the efficacy and ...

Time January 14, 2025
arrow
Subscribe Now