In patients with left ventricular dysfunction, intraventricular mural thrombosis is a recognized risk factor for cardioembolic events. The flow stasis accompanying ventricular remodeling and myocardial dysfunction could favor the formation of small intracavitary thrombi between LV trabeculae, small enough not be detected by conventional imaging techniques. Computational post-processing techniques allow a robust and complete characterization of numerous aspects of fluid dynamics within the heart using the flow field obtained by Echo or MRI imaging, and it is possible to quantify the stasis and washing of blood in the left ventricular cavity.~A cross-sectional study in 80 patients with non-ischemic DCM in sinus rhythm is proposed in which an echocardiogram, cardiac and cerebral MRI will be performed. Our objective is to quantify the ventricular stasis by post-processing of 2D color Doppler echocardiography images in order to establish the relationship between quantifiable intraventricular stasis variables and the prevalence of silent and embolic events and intracavitary thrombosis determined by magnetic resonance (MRI).
This study is designed to quantify the ventricular stasis in patients with non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy by post-processing of 2D color Doppler echocardiography images in order to establish the relationship between quantitative variables of intraventricular stasis and the prevalence of silent embolic events and/or intraventricular mural thrombosis determined by magnetic resonance.