Suspected intracardiac masses: evaluation with MR imaging

Electrocardiographically gated magnetic resonance (MR) imaging was used to examine 34 patients believed or known to have intracardiac masses on the basis of results from two-dimensional (2D) echocardiography. Cardiac masses were confirmed in 15 patients on the basis of MR imaging results. In seven patients, MR imaging confirmed the absence of an intracardiac mass but demonstrated an anatomic variant or other abnormality that had been interpreted as a possible mass on the echocardiogram. In 12 patients, MR demonstrated neither an intracardiac mass nor an anatomic variant that was likely to have been misinterpreted as a mass on the echocardiogram. Clinical follow-up in these patients at 10 months to 2 years and repeat 2D echocardiography have not indicated a definite mass. In six patients tissue characterization of the mass with MR imaging added some specificity to the MR diagnosis. Thus, MR imaging can be used to verify intracardiac masses found on 2D echocardiograms and to exclude a mass as the cause of equivocal findings on 2D echocardiography.