GUEST EDITORIAL

Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Update Michael Atalay, MD, PhD

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t is a great honor to serve as guest editor for this special TMRI edition focused on cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR). The 5 included articles cover a broad range of CMR applications and illustrate its established and emerging strengths in the assessment of an equally wide range of cardiovascular conditions. Indeed, while CMR has now reached maturity and broad clinical acceptance, it continues to grow and evolve at a rapid pace and in turn to enhance our understanding of cardiac health and disease. The topics presented in this edition of TMRI were chosen because of their clear clinical importance and the strong yet growing interest they have drawn. The first 2 articles are technique based and describe the proven and emerging roles of myocardial T1- and T2* imaging. Parametric mapping takes us in some sense back to the future with MR imaging. Efforts to quantify tissue parameters in health and disease after all date back to the early years of MRI. The refinement of techniques and the improvements in technology occurring over the interval permit more robust application of clinical parametric imaging than could be previously achieved. (Notably absent here is a discussion of myocardial T2 imaging, a topic that has garnered considerable recent attention but that also remains enshrouded in controversy. See ‘‘Controversies in Cardiovascular MR Imaging,’’ Radiology 2012;265(1):12Y32). The remaining 3 articles are disease centered and discuss issues pertinent to ischemic heart disease, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and pulmonary hypertension, in that order. As evidence-based medicine becomes increasingly de rigueur, analyses of outcomes and prognoses leverage appropriate utilization of testing. To this end, all of the articles discuss to some extent not only methods and applications but also the outcomes and prognoses proffered by CMR. Finally, I am grateful to Dr Scott Atlas for inviting me to serve as guest editor of this TMRI edition and to all the authors for delivering eminently readable and thorough articles. I hope that you will findVas I haveVthat these review articles are well-written, comprehensive treatise on their respective topics crafted by experts in their field that will serve as state-of-the-art references for CMR applications. I would encourage having them at the ready while seated at the scanner, by the workstation, or at the PACS monitor. Happy reading!

From the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI Reprints: Michael Atalay, MD, PhD, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI. The author declares no conflict of interest. Copyright * 2014 by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

Topics in Magnetic Resonance Imaging

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Volume 23, Number 1, February 2014

www.topicsinmri.com

Copyright © 2014 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.

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