Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging: recent advances and future directions

Laurynas Miščikas1, Aleksandra Kubiliūtė1, Martynas Bučnius2

1 Faculty of Medicine, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania

2 Department of Cardiology, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania

 

Abstract

 

Background. Over the past two decades, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) has been rapidly evolving and has now become the gold standard method for evaluation of cardiac chamber volumes and ejection fraction. Moreover, CMR is a valuable diagnostic tool for the characterization of cardiac tissue. Despite its diagnostic capabilities, CMR is still in development.

Objectives. The aim of this article is to review innovations in CMR imaging as well as recent clinical trials.

Methods. A systemic review of literature was performed using databases: Pubmed, ClincalKey and ScienceDirect. Certain keywords were used to find relevant medical publications of the latest years.

Conclusion. Recent technological advances and large clinical trials have promoted changes in diagnostic algorithms of various diseases and increased its role in cardiac imaging. Novel CMR techniques, such as T1 and T2 mapping, enable to quantitively visualize cardiac tissue disturbances such as infiltration, fibrosis or edema. Myocardial functional changes can be detected with even more precise methods using myocardial strain analysis. Moreover, artificial intelligence has been actively developed in the imaging field, including CMR, and it is believed to become an important part of everyday practice.

Keywords: cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, T1 mapping, T2 mapping, myocardial strains, artificial intelligence.

https://doi.org/10.53453/ms.2021.06.16