[Noninvasive heart function diagnosis using magnetic resonance tomography (MRI) and positron emission tomography...

MR as well as PET are likely to permit substantial progress in cardiac diagnosis in the coming years. Due to the introduction of ultrafast MRI with acquisition times of 50 to 200 milliseconds per image, functional imaging capabilities arise which have hitherto been inconceivable. Wall motion studies and cardiac flow measurements within a maximum of 4 to 8 heartbeats can be acquired under breath hold conditions. Perfusion measurements of the entire heart can be obtained after a single contrast medium dose with a temporal resolution of 1-2 seconds, and in addition to imaging of the large coronaries, flow measurements within these vessels also should become feasible. Since the corresponding technologies still require substantial developments in hard- and software, it is too early to express a view on the relative merits of ultrafast MR relative to competing methods. The important conclusion at this time is that ultrafast MR will fundamentally expand the potential of cardiac MRI. MR spectroscopy at present yields interesting research data, but is far away from a clinical application. Cardiac PET has clearly advanced to the gold standard in the diagnosis of hibernating myocardium and is considerably more sensitive than the corresponding thallium examinations. PET has become much more efficient in the last two years and the capital investment as well as the running costs have fallen substantially. Thus PET can be considered a clinical examination method. Indications for PET are mainly in patients with terminal ischemic heart disease where it has to be decided whether any and what kind of invasive therapy should be administered to the patient.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)