Comprehensive cardiovascular magnetic resonance for monitoring the response to therapy in pericardial tuberculosis.

et al. Relationship between left atrial and left ventricular function in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: a real-time-3-dimensional echocardiographic study. A, ten Cate FJ. Left atrial Frank-Starling law assessed by real-time, three-dimensional echocardiographic left atrial volume changes. A et al. Fate of left atrial function as determined by real-time three-dimensonal echocardiography study after radiofrequency catheter ablation for the treatment of atrial fibrillation. Effect of repeated radiofrequency catheter ablation on left atrial function for the treatment of atrial fib-rillation. Meta-analysis of the effect of radiofrequency catheter ablation on left atrial size, volumes and function in patients with atrial fibrillation. reservoir function as a potent marker for first atrial fibrillation or flutter in persons ≥65 years of age.operative left atrial mechanical function predicts risk of atrial fibrillation following cardiac surgery. Left atrial relaxation and left ventricu-lar systolic function determine left atrial reservoir function. L Echocardiographic left atrial reverse remodeling after catheter ablation of atrial fib-rillation is predicted by preablation delayed enhancement of left atrium by magnetic resonance imaging. A Caucasian 25-year-old man with cardiac tam-ponade underwent urgent pericardiocentesis with the removal of 100 ml of siero-ematic essu-dative fluid. Smear microscopy detected acid-fast bacilli, and pericardial tuberculosis was confirmed by positive culture for Mycobacterium tuberculosis. One-week after pericardiocentesis, cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) was performed (upper panel). Short-axis cine steady-state free precession (Panel A), black-blood T 1-weighted (Panel B), and T 2-weighted, short-TI-inversion-recovery (Panel C) fast spin-echo images showed markedly thickened pericardial layers, which were fused anteriorly (red arrows, maximum thickness 10 mm), while remained separated by abundant pericardial effusion (asterisks) inferiorly (white arrows). Diffuse oedema and late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) were visualized on T 2-weighted (Panel C) and post-contrast T 1-weighted fast gradient-echo inversion-recovery (Panel D) images, respectively. Horizontal long-axis cine images showed diastolic 'bouncing' of interventricular septum, indicating an increased ventricular interdependency (Supplementary data online, Video S1). CMR using the same protocol was repeated after 1 year of anti-tuberculosis regimen including isoniazid, rifampicin, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol (lower panel). Cine (Panel E) and morphological (Panels F and G) images disclosed the resolution of structural and tissue abnormalities of pericardial layers in association with disappearance of pericardial effusion. In particular, oedema and LGE of pericardial layers were not any longer visualized on T 2-weighted (Panel G) and post-contrast T 1-weighted (Panel H) images, respectively. These changes were paralleled by the normalization of diastolic motion of inter-ventricular septum on cine horizontal long-axis images (Supplementary data online, Video S2), …