Developments in cardiovascular imaging

The development of cardiovascular drugs appears to have gained further momentum over recent years. Many previous and ongoing studies have focused on outcomes with various interventions, but cardiac imaging techniques are developing to the extent that the physiological processes that they measure may be used as alternative study endpoints. Certainly, assessment of physiological parameters appears to be of considerable prognostic value. Use of imaging tests would have the advantage of shorter studies in smaller number of patients to demonstrate the efficacy of new cardiovascular therapies. A number of imaging techniques have been or are being used for this purpose, and will be the main focus of this review. Moreover, the prognostic power of these tests favors their use in optimizing clinical decision-making to obtain the most favorable outcome at the lowest cost.