Latin American Multicenter Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Reference Study

Evaluation of myocardial mass, volumes and function is essential in the management of cardiovascular diseases. While 2D and 3D echocardiography play a major role in determining these parameters cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) has become a widely accepted gold standard for these measurements due to its high accuracy and reproducibility.

However, determining normal reference standards for CMR is crucial for proper use of the method. Previous reports have established normal ranges for both fast low angle shot techniques6 and the more commonly used steady state free precession methods including values normalized not only to body surface area but to age and gender as well. Despite these general references, variability in normal ranges have been reported previously when ethnicity is taken into account. The ongoing Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) trial has measured cardiovascular function in participants with different ethnical backgrounds, reporting differences in the African-American and Asian-American groups.

Latin-American populations have generally been underrepresented in most clinical cardiovascular trials despite representing a growing percentage of heart disease patients in the world and, particularly, in the USA12-15. While the MESA trial evaluated cardiac function by CMR in Hispanics, data was limited to participants living in USA, within a restricted age group and representing only a small fraction of their entire cohort. It is thus essential to acquire specific data for this population regarding normal CMR values in order to permit not only precise clinical evaluation of Hispanic patients but also accurate assessment of ventricular function figures from Latin American countries in future CMR and drug trials.

To accomplish this goal, we propose a multicenter study to collect CMR data from countries in Latin America in normal participants with 20-80 years of age.