Contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging in the follow-up of subendocardial myocardial damage in patients with drug-resistant arterial hypertension treated using radiofrequencey ablation of renal arteries

The aim of the study was to adopt and optimise the technique of contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance tomography for evaluation of non-transmural damage of myocardium in patients with drug-resistant arterial hypertension in the course of treatment using intravascular technique of radiofrequency ablation of the renal arteries. ECG-gated contrast-enhanced MRI of the heart was employed for these purposes in ten patients with drug-resistant hypertension and prominent left ventricular hypertrophy twice: before the treatment and six months after radiofrequency ablation of the renal arteries. The index of enhancement (IE) of T1-weighted spin-echo images, volume of uptake of the contrast to the myocardium, and left ventricular myocardial mass were shown as most useful indices for the MRI follow-up of condition of the heart in the patients. The study showed that contrast-enhanced MRI is an adequate technique of diagnosis and follow-up of the non-transmural damage of myocardium in patients with left ventricular hypertrophy and drug-resistant arterial hypertension. Results of the MRI studies in these patients with drug-resistant hypertension provide evidence for significant regress of left ventricular hypertrophy and subendocardial myocardial damage after radiofrequency ablation of the renal arteries.