MR imaging of cardiac thrombi

Abstract

This retrospective study of 10 magnetic resonance (MR) examinations in patients with cardiac thrombi (eight in left ventricle and two in right atrium) was performed to assess the ability of MR for demonstrating cardiac thrombi and describe the appearance of cardiac thrombi using the spin echo technique. Cardiac thrombi usually had higher signal intensity than the normal myocardium on MR imaging, especially on the second echo (TE of 56 or 60 ms) image. Differentiation between cardiac thrombus and intracardiac signal resulting from slowly flowing blood was possible based on different signal intensity changes using various techniques. In conclusion, MI imaging constitutes another noninvasive modality for the detection of cardiac thrombus. Further work is needed to determine its accuracy compared with that of two-dimensional echocardiography.