Assessment of Longitudinal Shortening in Cardiomyopathies with Cardiac Magnetic Resonance

Purpose of Review Longitudinal shortening (LS) allows additive information in the diagnosis and prognosis of cardiomyopathies. This review provides an overview of different LS assessment techniques using CMR and their supplemental value in various cardiomyopathies. Recent Findings Assessment of LS using CMR-derived mitral and tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (MAPSE and TAPSE) as well as feature tracking imaging (FTI) has been proven useful in the diagnosis of dilated cardiomyopathies (DCM), hypertrophic cardiomyopathies (HCM), ischemic heart disease, pulmonary artery hypertension, Brugada syndrome, arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, and valvular and congenital heart disease. Furthermore, measurement of LS using FTI and MAPSE was identified as a robust predictor of cardiac outcome. LS assessment with long axis strain (LAS) outperformed the diagnostic accuracy of MAPSE and TAPSE and provided relevant information on discriminative performance in DCM. Summary Due to the simple determination and the great clinical relevance of LS, we recommend its routine assessment in cardiomyopathies.