Letter from the Guest Editors

Article Outline

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The first issue of the Cardiac Imaging series focused on Cardiac CT. This issue focuses mainly on cardiac MR, and also includes imaging of cardiac tumors and the pericardium using both modalities. In the early years, the heart was a challenging organ to accurately evaluate with MR. However in the last decade, significant technical and clinical advances have resulted in the recognition of cardiac MR as a valuable and validated imaging technique for evaluating cardiac disease. In routine clinical practice, cardiac MR is used for the evaluation of ventricular function, cardiac morphology, myocardial perfusion, myocardial tissue characterization, viability, and for the evaluation of the pericardium and cardiac masses. Cardiac MR imaging improves clinical decision making in patients with cardiac disease when used in a complementary fashion to other cardiac imaging modalities such as echocardiography, CT, and nuclear medicine. In this issue of Seminars in Roentgenology, we provide a comprehensive review of the current state of knowledge regarding cardiac MR imaging.

A detailed understanding of operational considerations and pulse sequences is necessary to carry out a diagnostic cardiac MR examination. In the first article, Drs. Jeudy and White discuss the general techniques and principles of cardiac MR. The high temporal resolution of cardiac MR makes it the most accurate non-invasive imaging technique to study global and regional ventricular function. In the second article, Drs. Sarwar, Saphiro, Abbara and Cury elaborate the MR techniques and methods used to study ventricular function. Ischemic heart disease accounts for a large burden of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. An accurate assessment of myocardial viability and perfusion is critical to the management of this increasing patient population. In the third article, Drs. Strzelczyk and Attili discuss the techniques and evidence for the use of MR in the evaluation of myocardial viability and ischemia. Cardiac MR is increasingly used to characterize and provide prognostic information in cardiomyopathies. In the next article, Drs. Mueller and Attili discuss the role of cardiac MR in the evaluation of the major non-ischemic cardiomyopathies. The next article by Drs. Sullivan and Gladish describes the evaluation of cardiac tumors with MR. Both CT and MR play a key role in evaluation of pericardial disease, particularly constrictive pericarditis and pericardial tumors. In the following article, Drs. Lopez Costa and Bhalla discuss the role of cross-sectional imaging for evaluation of the pericardium. Adults with congenital heart disease constitute a growing population. MR plays a unique role in the evaluation of congenital heart disease, providing accurate assessment of cardiac morphology and function in a manner complementary and often superior to echocardiography. The final article by Drs. Meadows, Ordovas, Higgins, and Reddy provides information on the evaluation of the commonly encountered congenital heart defects in adults with MR.

We would like to thank all the authors for all their hard work and diligence in providing the readers with a comprehensive review on this timely and exciting topic. We would also like to thank Dr. Jannette Collins for giving us this wonderful opportunity to serve as guest editors. We are delighted to present to the reader, a review on cardiac MR and CT, with the hope that this would further stimulate and encourage them to incorporate cardiac imaging in their daily clinical practice with an ultimate aim of delivering excellent cardiovascular clinical care.