PMID- 24106233 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20140326 LR - 20191210 IS - 2151-4658 (Electronic) IS - 2151-464X (Linking) VI - 66 IP - 1 DP - 2014 Jan TI - Cardiac tissue characterization and the diagnostic value of cardiovascular magnetic resonance in systemic connective tissue diseases. PG - 104-12 LID - 10.1002/acr.22181 [doi] AB - OBJECTIVE: Accurate diagnosis of cardiovascular involvement in connective tissue diseases (CTDs) remains challenging. We hypothesized that cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) demonstrates cardiac lesions in symptomatic CTD patients with normal echocardiography. METHODS: CMR from 246 CTD patients with typical cardiac symptoms (TCS; n = 146, group A) or atypical cardiac symptoms (ATCS; n = 100, group B) was retrospectively evaluated. Group A included 9 patients with inflammatory myopathy (IM), 35 with sarcoidosis, 30 with systemic sclerosis (SSc), 14 with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), 10 with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and 48 with small vessel vasculitis. Group B included 25 patients with RA, 20 with SLE, 20 with sarcoidosis, 15 with SSc, 10 with IM, and 10 with small vessel vasculitis. CMR was performed by 1.5T; left ventricular ejection fraction, T2 ratio (edema imaging), and late gadolinium enhancement (LGE; fibrosis imaging) were evaluated. Acute and chronic lesions were characterized as LGE positive plus T2 ratio >2 and T2 ratio