Follow-up by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy who underwent percutaneous ventricular septal ablation.

To evaluate myocardial infarction and describe the early to mid-term changes induced by percutaneous ventricular septal ablation (PVSA) in symptomatic patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy using cardiac magnetic resonance imaging. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging was performed before and 1 week and 1 year after PVSA in 52 patients. The relation between the infarction size and other factors was determined. At 1 week after PVSA, regional hyperenhancement was visualized in the basal interventricular septum in all patients. The mean infarction size was 29.5 ± 15.9 g. The infarction size correlated well with the ethanol volume. The left ventricular myocardial mass decreased significantly from 196.1 ± 65.9 g at baseline to 183.4 ± 63.6 g 1 week after PVSA (p <0.001) and 164.1 ± 60.9 g within the 1-year follow-up period (p <0.001). In conclusion, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging allowed a detailed evaluation of the size and location of septal myocardial infarction induced by PVSA. The left ventricular myocardial mass decreased significantly during the follow-up period.