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Myocardial clefts: do they really exist? (547.8)
Author(s) -
Casier Craig,
Rossler Carmen,
Tubbs R. Shane,
Loukas Marios
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.28.1_supplement.547.8
Subject(s) - medicine , tetralogy of fallot , cardiology , hypertrophic cardiomyopathy , dissection (medical) , diastole , hypokinesia , pulmonary valve stenosis , population , anatomy , stenosis , heart disease , environmental health , blood pressure
Myocardial clefts are described as discrete approximately V‐shaped extensions of blood signal penetrating >50% of the thickness of adjoining compact myocardium in long‐axis views on MRI and CTs and the clefts tending to narrow or occlude in systole, without local hypokinesia or dyskinesia.” The terms recesses, fissures, diverticula and crypts have all been used to describe myocardial clefts. According to the literature these diverticula are present in the healthy population approximately from 5‐10% of the individuals. The aim of our study was to explore if these diverticula exist in normal healthy hearts. Dissection of 100 hearts was performed on formalin fixed cadavers. We were unable to find any diverticula as described on CT and MRI studies. This is likely due to the fact that it might be challenging to differentiate the clefts from multiple large trabeculations creating an uneven surface of the endocardial tissue during systole and diastole. Traditionally, clefts are found in individuals with repaired congenital pulmonary valve stenosis, hypertension, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and in patients with repaired tetralogy of Fallot. Much of the literature to date has made use of vertical long‐axis views to detect these clefts. This might suggest that this plane of view creates a false impression of myocardial cleft over a large septal trabeculations.