Quantitative clinical guidelines for imaging use in evaluation of pediatric cardiomyopathy

Pediatric cardiomyopathies are a heterogeneous group of disorders in which early detection and treatment can drastically alter the course of the disease. Cardiac MRIs have become an increasingly popular option in evaluating for cardiomyopathies, though they remain expensive and time-consuming compared to echocardiography. Because guidelines for the use of cardiac MRI are vague, we investigated the quantitative characteristics of cardiac echo that predict subsequent positive cardiac MRI. Measurements were extracted from echo reports, processed, and fed into a Bayesian rule learning system. We discovered that ejection fraction and interventricular septum thickness were particularly important predictors of positive cardiac MRI. These features may help justify obtaining a cardiac MRI when echo results are inconclusive.