Role of Cardiac MRI in Pericardial Diseases

To explore and highlight the important role that Cardiac MRI (CMR) plays as an imaging tool that not only facilitates the diagnosis of pericardial disease but is increasingly used to guide initiation of treatment and gauge adequacy of response to therapy in patients with acute and recurrent pericarditis is a specific focus of this review. An emphasis will be placed on the sequences that are currently utilized and novel sequences that could potentially be utilized for the diagnosis of pericarditis and pericardial disease. This article focuses on the CMR characteristics of the most encountered pericardial diseases and novel CMR techniques that may play an adjunctive role in the diagnosis, management, prognosis and the assessment of adequacy of response to therapy in patients with acute pericarditis. CMR has emerged as a powerful tool in the diagnosis of pericardial disease. This is a review of the current and future roles that CMR-based sequences play in not only the diagnosis of pericardial disease, but also in evaluating the need for medical therapy and gauging adequacy of response to therapy in this cohort.