Comparison of the diagnostic performance of MRI and transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) assessment of cardiac masses

Cardiac tumors are usually asymptomatic diseases. Considering the anatomic position of the heart, it is necessary to identify their nature before every aggressive intervention. The aim of this study was to compare the diagnostic performance of MRI and transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) assessment of cardiac masses. In a cross-sectional survey from April 2010 to March 2013, twenty eight patients with suspected cardiac tumors, were evaluated with TTE and MRI. Collected data analyzed using MCSS 2007 and PASS 2008 software p<0.05 used for significance. The present study indicated that accurate diagnosis was made by MRI as 37.9% non-neoplastic lesions, 20.7% as benign tumors, 20.7% as malignant tumors and 3 cases of extra-cardiac lesions. In contrast, only in 8 patients with benign tumors the accurate diagnosis was made by TTE. The present study indicated that MRI scanning in comparison to TTE is more efficacious for the evaluation of cardiac masses and can be considered as an appropriate test when they are suspected according to preliminary results of imaging studies.