Cardiac Imaging: The Future is Now

Five of the top ten imaging-related expenditures in the U.S. are related to cardiac imaging, with echocardiography and cardiac catheterization at the top of the list. Despite tremendous technological advances in recent years and the fact that MR angiography of the thoracic aorta is the most common MRA procedure performed, clinical cardiac MR imaging remains remarkably underutilized.

Using state-of-the-art MR scanners, cardiac MRI can now be performed efficiently and effectively for a wide variety of indications. Superb high resolution images of the beating heart can be acquired in 10 sec or less or even in real time, allowing superior evaluation of ventricular wall motion and function that serves as the "gold standard" among all imaging techniques. Anatomic imaging for evaluation of cardiac masses, constrictive pericarditis, cardiomyopathies, right ventricular dysplasia, and so on is easily and appropriately complemented by functional imaging to assess the physiologic consequences of pathologies of the heart. For patients with ischemic heart disease, infarct imaging with contrast-enhanced MRI has come of age and is a technique commercially available from all the manufacturers. Stress testing and coronary imaging in patients with ischemic heart disease are areas under development that are demonstrating tremendous promise in the near future.

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	General Reviews
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	Selected Readings
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