New MR insights of cardiomyopathy.

Cardiomyopathies are diseases of the myocardium, characterized by distinct morphological, electrophysiological and functional alterations of the heart. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging offers distinct advantages over other imaging tests in the study of cardiomyopathies to assess cardiac morphology, function, flow, perfusion, acute tissue injury, and fibrosis in a single setting. Delayed enhancement MR imaging can differentiate ischemic from non-ischemic cardiomyopathies based on patterns of enhancement and may be useful in discriminating different forms of non-ischemic cardiomyopathies.