Heart Muscle Diseases

Abstract

Heart muscle diseases or cardiomyopathies represent an important and heterogeneous group of cardiac diseases. Imaging is an essential pillar in assessment of the phenotypic expression of this group of diseases, indispensable for disease classification, obligatory to evaluate the degree of dysfunction, and appealing for risk stratification. This chapter focuses on the emerging role of MRI to assess this complex group of diseases. Since MRI provides unique information on myocardial tissue characteristics and functional properties, the focus is not only on the diagnosis, differential diagnosis, follow-up of disease progression, and evaluation of response to treatment of cardiomyopathies but this technique is increasingly being used for risk stratification of potential harmful complications, such as cardiac arrhythmias, heart failure, and sudden cardiac death.