Right Ventricle Involvement in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy and Role of Cardiac Magnetic Resonance in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: Review Article

Abstract

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common genetic cardiac disease, and its main characteristic is symmetrical or asymmetrical hypertrophy of the left ventricle and/or right ventricle. Most previous studies mainly include the left ventricle for definition of HCM, thus neglecting the right ventricle. But recently, many studies have reported the right ventricular involvement in HCM. Histopathological results showed that similar pathogenic changes in both the right and left ventricles, which suggests common myopathic processes and sarcomere genetic mutations. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is a gold standard imaging modality to assess heart anatomy and function and provides highly accurate and reproducible measurements. CMR is very useful in characterizing the various phenotypes of right and left ventricles in HCM. CMR also can be useful in detecting early and dominant phenotypic expression of HCM. Due to the complex geometry of the right ventricle and its retrosternal position, echocardiography may not provide accurate measurements. CMR also provides more accurate and repeatable right ventricular measurements. Thus, right ventricle evaluation along with left ventricle should routinely be done for better assessment of HCM patients.