WHEN DO WE HAVE to PERFORM CARDIAC MAGNETIC RESONANCE in PATIENTS REFERRED for PREMATURE VENTRICULAR COMPLEXES by THEIR CARDIOLOGISTS

Premature ventricular complexes (PVC) are a common entity affecting approximatively 20% of the general population. It can be discovered incidentally on electrocardiogram (ECG) or associated with symptoms with a wide spectrum from palpitations, chest pain, to syncope.

The initial and non invasive assessment includes holter ECG monitoring, a transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and an exercise stress test to rule out structural heart disease (SHD), and referred to as benign or "idiopathic" ventricular arrhythmias (IVA).

However, these exams may fail to identify subtle myocardial abnormalities such as arrhythmogenic right ventricle dysplasia (ARVD), apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, healed myocarditis, ischemic or non-ischemic cardiomyopathies.

Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging is the gold standard modality to assess regional and global ventricular function. It is also a unique modality to non-invasively detect myocardial edema, myocardial fatty replacement, focal and diffuse fibrosis and could potentially identify SHD in patients with PVC.

However, the role of CMR is uncertain, recommended in case of atypical presentation or when the initial assessment can't exclude a cardiomyopathy (recommendations class IIa).

This study sought to determine whether and when CMR can be performed to provide diagnosis or prognostic information complementary to initial assessment in patients referred for PVC by their cardiologists.