Th e Role of Cardiac Imaging in Patient Evaluation Strategies

The diagnosis and prognostic assessment of patients with suspected or known cardiac disease has become increasingly dependent upon the use of noninvasive cardiac imaging technologies. Two of these are well established, echocardiography and nuclear cardiology, and two are relatively recent, cardiac CT and cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR). Cardiac CT provides high-resolution images of the coronary arteries without invasive cardiac catheterization, and allows accurate assessment of coronary disease severity by visualizing and quantifying the magnitude of atherosclerosis and characterizing coronary plaque morphology. This technology improves physicians’ ability to detect coronary disease at earlier stages and improve estimates of patient risk, thereby allowing physicians to target those who most need aggressive medical intervention and follow-up.