Integrated Imaging in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

Abstract

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HC) has a very heterogeneous clinical spectrum and lends itself to multimodality imaging for evaluation and management. This review addresses clinical applications of cardiac imaging in patients with HC. Integrating various techniques of echocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is discussed in the clinical context such as diagnosis, evaluation, management, risk stratification, and family screening of patients with HC. The utility of periprocedural imaging techniques is highlighted for guiding surgical and transcatheter septal reduction procedures. More limited roles of invasive or computed tomography coronary angiography are discussed for patients with HC with chest pain and risk factors for coronary artery disease. Nuclear techniques although available for decades play a more limited role in contemporary routine management but may assist in risk assessment. Newer CMR and echo imaging techniques are discussed in their emerging roles for further characterization of patients with HC and family members with prospects of preclinical diagnosis. The strengths of the different imaging modalities are presented as well as a flow diagram summarizing integrated imaging in this disease. In conclusion, integrated imaging using the various imaging techniques predominantly echocardiography and CMR based on the clinical picture plays an essential role in the management of patients with HC.