Cardiac Functional Assessment by Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Imaging
• Medical Physics
• Diagnostic Cardiology

Background:

• Echocardiography is widely used for cardiac function assessment.
• Echocardiography has limitations including acoustic window dependency and operator variability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the state-of-the-art of cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging for assessing cardiac function.
• To cover CMR acquisition techniques and clinical applications.

Main Methods:

• Review of current literature on CMR for cardiac function assessment.
• Discussion of CMR acquisition techniques.
• Overview of clinical applications of CMR.

Main Results:

• CMR provides non-invasive assessment of cardiac morphology, ventricular geometry, myocardial wall motion, and intra-cardiac flow.
• CMR is not limited by acoustic windows or operator dependence.
• CMR does not use ionizing radiation.

Conclusions:

• CMR offers distinct advantages over echocardiography for cardiac function assessment.
• CMR is suitable for diagnosing cardiovascular diseases, monitoring treatment, and longitudinal follow-up.
• This review highlights the capabilities and applications of CMR in cardiology.