New directions in cardiac magnetic resonance imaging

Cardiac MRI is poised for a major change: Recent development of echoplanar imaging, or "instant" scanning, offers the possibility of studying myocardial perfusion with contrast agents. Moreover, newer contrast agents are being developed to study various aspects of myocardial function. Techniques of MR angiography have progressed: Noninvasive coronary angiography for detecting asymptomatic atherosclerosis of at least the proximal region of the coronary arteries appears possible in the near future. MRI has also been used to solve a long-standing problem in cardiac imaging: the absence of point-to-point correspondence in tomographic images of the heart from diastole to systole. Through tissue tagging, MRI offers the unique possibility of noninvasively assessing local and regional ventricular deformation more accurately than any other method available today.