Cardiac Magnetic Resonance in the Evaluation of COVID-19

Daniel E Clark; Sachin K Aggarwal; Neil J Phillips; Jonathan H Soslow; Jeffrey M Dendy; Sean G Hughes

doi:10.15420/cfr.2021.20

Cardiac Magnetic Resonance in the Evaluation of COVID-19

Card Fail Rev. 2022 Mar 23:8:e09. doi: 10.15420/cfr.2021.20. eCollection 2022 Jan.

Authors

Daniel E Clark¹, Sachin K Aggarwal², Neil J Phillips³, Jonathan H Soslow⁴, Jeffrey M Dendy¹, Sean G Hughes¹

Affiliations

¹ Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Centre Nashville, TN, US.
² Vanderbilt School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN, US.
³ Department of Internal Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Centre Nashville, TN, US.
⁴ Thomas P Graham Division of Paediatric Cardiology, Department of Paediatrics, Monroe Carell Jr Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt Nashville, TN, US.

Abstract

Cardiovascular involvement following COVID-19 is heterogeneous, prevalent and is often missed by echocardiography and serum biomarkers (such as troponin I and brain natriuretic peptide). Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is the gold standard non-invasive imaging modality to phenotype unique populations after COVID-19, such as competitive athletes with a heightened risk of sudden cardiac death, patients with multisystem inflammatory syndrome, and people suspected of having COVID-19 vaccine-induced myocarditis. This review summarises the key attributes of CMR, reviews the literature that has emerged for using CMR for people who may have COVID-19-related complications after COVID-19, and offers expert opinion regarding future avenues of investigation and the importance of reporting findings.

Keywords: COVID-19; cardiac magnetic resonance; multisystem inflammatory syndrome; myocarditis; vaccine myocarditis.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number T32HL007411 (DEC). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. All authors take full responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.