Abstract
BACKGROUND: Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) contributes to the diagnostic evaluation of cardiomyopathy and procedural planning. Many patients referred for clinical CMR have cardiac implantable electrical devices (CIEDs). Few studies have described the feasibility of CMR at 3T in patients with CIED.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the safety and quality of CMR at 3T field strength in patients with conditional CIEDs.
METHODS: We implemented an abbreviated CMR protocol including cardiac cine and late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) sequences. We identified patients with magnetic resonance imaging-conditional CIEDs at 3T referred for a clinical CMR from September 2020 to February 2024. CIED function was assessed after each scan. Cardiac cine and LGE sequences were evaluated for quality and artifacts affecting interpretation.
RESULTS: We evaluated 87 patients (22 women, 66 ± 11.7 years) who underwent 90 scans. No adverse events were observed during any scan. No changes in battery voltage or lead parameters required device reprogramming; 82 scans (91%) were diagnostic. In 50 cine sequences (59%) and 49 LGE sequences (58%), the quality was determined to be good or good/intermediate. In 73 cine (86%) and 47 LGE sequences (55%), there was agreement that there were no artifacts affecting interpretation.
CONCLUSION: Our single-center real-world experience confirms the safety of CIED-CMR at 3T for appropriately labeled CIEDs, with no adverse events or changes to device parameters requiring reprogramming. Although images may be suboptimal owing to artifacts, more than 90% of scans were diagnostic.