Cardiovascular magnetic resonance: twenty-first century solutions in cardiology

Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is a rapidly developing new field in cardiology. It is beginning to contribute to greater understanding of diagnosis and management of hitherto difficult clinical conditions and is invaluable for research programmes, where its resolution, accuracy and reproducibility allow studies to be performed more quickly and cheaply than in the past. This article emphasises the use of CMR in preventing cardiovascular disease, such as ventricular remodelling after infarction, the genetic control of left ventricular hypertrophy, cardiomyopathies, high resolution myocardial perfusion in cardiac syndrome X, and detection of early stage atherosclerosis.