Magnetic resonance imaging in patients with cardiomyopathies: when and why.

Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a noninvasive tool which is able to diagnose and differentiate cardiomyopathies in a single study. The assessment of essential information such as alterations of myocardial and ventricular geometry and function is possible with a high degree of accuracy and reproducibility, based on a small inter- and intraobserver variability. Thus, very small morphological and functional changes in different types of cardiomyopathy are detectable, thereby enabling the cardiologist to increase the safety of therapeutic decisions. Furthermore, MRI bears the potential to characterize tissue transformation in the different types of myocardial affections including ischemic, toxic, infiltrative or inflammatory forms.