Heart failure (HF) does not only reduce the life expectancy in patients, but their life is also often limited by HF symptoms leading to a reduced quality of life (QoL) and a diminished exercise capacity. Novel parameters in cardiac imaging, including both global and regional myocardial strain imaging, promise to contribute to better patient characterization and ultimately to better patient management. However, many of these methods are not part of clinical routine yet, their associations with clinical parameters have been poorly studied. An imaging parameters that also indicate the clinical symptom burden of HF patients would make cardiac imaging more robust toward incomplete clinical information and support the clinical decision process.
CMR detects decreased myocardial deformation in asymptomatic patients at risk for heart failure
A recently published article from Berlin highlights the potential of MyoStress in terms of identifying at-risk patients who have reserve and are therefore not symptomatic compared to patients with heart failure who have a preserved ejection fraction. This article shows that asymptomatic subjects with increased CV risk present with HFpEF