Patterns of cardiac involvement in different muscular dystrophies assessed by magnetic resonance imaging

In muscular dystrophies, it is not only skeletal muscles that can be affected, but also the myocardium. This cardiac involvement can represent a major cause of morbidity and mortality.To investigate cardiac involvement in Duchenne (DMD), Becker (BMD), and limb girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD) patients, and carriers of DMD/BMD by cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging and to search for differences in the pattern of cardiac involvement.All patients with genetically or histologically proven DMD, BMD, and LGMD, or confirmed carriers of DMD/BMD who had undergone CMR at our clinic between January 2008 and November 2018 were retrospectively included and re-evaluated for regional and global left ventricular function, increased trabecularization, and late enhancement.A total of 26 DMD, 10 BMD, 11 LGMD, and seven DMD/BMD carriers were included. Only one carrier of DMD presented with normal CMR results; all other participants showed cardiac abnormalities. Regional wall motion abnormalities (RWMA; prevalence in LGMD patients: 55%) and late enhancement (prevalence in LGMD patients: 82%) were frequent. RWMA were accentuated basal inferolateral in DMD/BMD carriers, while in LGMD they were accentuated apical. In all groups late enhancement was located mainly subepicardial/midmyocardial with a basal inferolateral accentuation. Apart from the different RWMA distribution, no further group-specific differences were found.We found a high rate of cardiac involvement not only in DMD/BMD, but also in LGMD and DMD/BMD carriers with a different RWMA accentuation (apical in LGMD and basal inferolateral in DMD/BMD) as a single group-specific difference.