Severe calcification of the lateral mitral annulus in constrictive pericarditis: a potential pitfall for the use of echocardiographic tissue Doppler imaging

According to the guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology on the diagnosis and management of pericardial diseases, tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) is proposed to be part of the diagnostic work-up in patients with suspected constrictive pericarditis (CP). We describe a case which illustrates that TDI analysis may be misleading in patients with severe pericardial calcifications of the lateral mitral annulus. Multi-slice computed tomography (MSCT) data in this case contributed much to a better understanding of the impact of heterogeneous calcification patterns on the results of TDI assessment in CP.