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Impact of magnetic resonance imaging on cardiac mortality in thalassemia major
Author(s) -
Chouliaras Giorgos,
Berdoukas Vasilios,
Ladis Vassilis,
Kattamis Antonis,
Chatziliami Antonia,
Fragodimitri Christina,
Karabatsos Fotis,
Youssef Jacqueline,
KaragiorgaLagana Markissia
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of magnetic resonance imaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.563
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1522-2586
pISSN - 1053-1807
DOI - 10.1002/jmri.22621
Subject(s) - medicine , magnetic resonance imaging , cardiac magnetic resonance imaging , cardiac imaging , thalassemia , cardiac magnetic resonance , radiology , cardiology
Purpose: To evaluate whether the introduction of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the management of thalassemia major (TM) patients has affected the risk of cardiac death. Materials and Methods: In all, 804 TM patients from two large reference units were included and the risk of dying of cardiac causes, before and after their first MRI, was assessed by a Cox proportional hazards model with time‐dependent covariates. Results: Adding information from MRI reduced the risk of cardiac death from 6.0 deaths/1000 patient‐years to 3.9 deaths/1000 patient‐years ( P = 0.22). The risk of cardiac death before having an MRI study was 82% higher compared to the risk observed after the first MRI. Conclusion: MRI has become a vital component of ongoing management and seems to have a beneficial effect on cardiac mortality in TM. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2011;. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.