Myocardial scar is a common finding in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and provides the substrate for ventricular arrhythmia (VA). Contrast-enhanced cardiac magnetic resonance (ce-CMR) allows accurate identification and quantification of myocardial scar tissue and enables to differentiate between the scar core and border zone (BZ). Of note, novel imaging techniques are available that isolate channels of healthy myocardial tissue in the context of the BZ that connect areas of normal myocardium between core areas. These protected connecting channels represent an essential component of reentry circuits and may be critical to entail VA and sudden cardiac death (SCD) in HCM patients.
This study will test the hypothesis that fine characterization of the scar architecture by ce-CMR may improve risk stratification of VA and SCD in patients with HCM.
