MAGNETIC-RESONANCE-IMAGING OF THE HEART A ND MAJOR VESSELS IN PATIENTS WITH PULMONARY-HYPERTENSION

Potentialities of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have been studied f or evaluation of patients with pulmonary hypertension. For this purpos e 54 patients with primary and secondary pulmonary hypertension have b een studied using resistive and superconductive MRI systems, MRI prove d useful for determination of the cause of pulmonary hypertension (pri mary; secondary), assessment of the right heart chambers. The cine-MRI enabled detection of tricuspid and pulmonary regurgitation, para doxi cal movement of the interventricular septum, thrombi in the pulmonary artery. There were some correlations between MRI parameters and indexe s of pulmonary hemodynamics. As a noninvasive imaging modality MRI has a great diagnostic value in characterization of the heart and great v essels in patients with pulmonary hypertension.