Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality and it is responsible for an increasing resource burden. The identification of patients at high risk for adverse events is crucial to select those who will receive the greatest benefit from revascularization. To this aim, several non-invasive functional imaging modalities are usually used as gatekeeper to inva...

Introduction Myocardial perfusion cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is established as a high sensitive procedure to diagnose coronary artery disease (CAD). In practice exercise electrocardigram (XECG) is widely used as non invasive method to detect relevant coronary stenosis (>50%). The aim of this study was to investigate the diagnostic perfomance of adenosin stress 3-Tesla cardiac MRI ...

Background Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) offers a minimal invasive option for treatment of patients with severe aortic stenosis at high risk for conventional surgery. The objective of this study was to investigate whether presence of late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) patterns detected by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (cMRI) is a risk factor for major adverse cardiac events...

Background 13C Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP) with rapid dissolution together with Magnetic Resonance Chemical Shift Imaging (CSI) have been used for non-invasive real-time metabolic assessment in cardiac experimental models on a clinical 3T scanner. Here, we report an in vivo comparison of hyperpolarized [1-13C] pyruvate and [1-13C] acetate perfusion and metabolism: a method based on a 3D ...

Background Liver cirrhosis has been shown to affect cardiac performance. However cardiac dysfunction may only be revealed under stress conditions. The value of non-invasive stress tests in diagnosing cirrhotic cardiomyopathy is unclear since their ability to detect abnormalities has been inconsistent using different imaging modalities. We sought to investigate the response to pharmacological st...

Background Within the extensive range of medical imaging methods used for cardiac analysis, T2-Weighed (T2W) Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (CMR) has been one of the most promising techniques for non-invasive edema quantification and IHD severity assessment. Many authors have suggested the importance of edema quantification in the prognosis of IHD patients and in the evaluation of expected ventricu...

AIMS The combined use of cardiac computed tomography (CT) coronary angiography (CTCA) and myocardial perfusion imaging allows the non-invasive evaluation of coronary morphology and function. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging has several advantages: it can simultaneously assess myocardial perfusion, ventricular and valvular function, cardiomyopathy, and aortic disease and does not ...

Over the past several decades, significant progress has been made in the pathohistological assessment of vulnerable plaques and in invasive intravascular imaging techniques. However, the assessment of plaque morphology by invasive modalities is of limited value for the detection of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis and the subsequent prediction or prevention of acute cardiovascular events. R...

Background Quantitative assessment of late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) by cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) has been associated with an increased risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). However, patients with lesser degrees of LGE may still remain at high risk of adverse cardiac events due to the diffuse pathophysiology of HCM. Non-i...