[The best of 2001. Nuclear cardiology and MRI]

The year 2001 has been very fertile for innovations and developments in the field of cardiac imaging. In Nuclear Cardiology, this year has been marked above all by a very large number of studies on the gated-SPECT, which allows joint analysis of the perfusion and contraction of the left ventricle. The contribution of this technique is recognised as being very significant in all fields using conventional tomoscintigraphy (screening for cardiac disease, evaluations of prognosis and viability,...). Innovation has also been focused in the field of radio-tracers, with studies on the very promising markers of apoptosis or cellular hypoxia. Lastly, much work has been conducted on the gamma-camera, especially to adapt it for imaging with the tracers used in positron emission tomography (PET). This will enable the distribution to all the Nuclear Medicine services of FDG imaging, which is the reference technique for studying myocardial viability. In MRI much work has been carried out on sequences using gadolinium, a vascular contrast agent, in order to identify and localise the sequelae of infarction, even when they are limited to the sub-endocardium. The most spectacular technical innovations were probably in the methods allowing an increase of the recorded signal (SENSE) and in updating the imaging sequences in real time, without apnoea and without ECG synchronisation. But, as every year, significant progress has also been made in MRI angiography of the coronary vessels, and thus in the analysis of myocardial tissue perfusion, with sequences which can be used without the injection of contrast medium.