[Echocardiography and magnetic resonance tomography of the heart in diagnosis of noncompaction of left ventricular myocardium]

Abstract

Left ventricular (LV) noncompaction (NC) is a rare form of cardiomyopathy which initially was diagnosed by transthoracic echocardiography (EchoCG). This paper presents description of 15 patients with diagnosis of LVNC. Aim of the study was to compare results of EchoCG with data of magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) of the heart in diagnosis of LVNC. We used the following EchoCG criteria of LVNC: (1) two layer structure of thickened LV wall with ratio of noncompacted to compacted layers more or equal 2, (2) numerous, excessively prominent trabeculations with deep intertrabecular recesses, (3) intertrabecular discontinuity on color doppler flow imaging. It was established that in assessment of ratio of noncompacted and compacted layers both methods were informative and can replace or supplement each other in diagnosis of LVNC.