Articolo in rivista, 2014, ENG, 10.1007/s11739-014-1106-3

Beyond ultrasound: advances in multimodality cardiac imaging

Nappi C, Acampa W, Pellegrino T, Petretta M, Cuocolo A.

Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico II; Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche

The rapid technological evolution accomplished in noninvasive cardiac imaging techniques over the past few decades has provided physicians with a large armamentarium for the evaluation of patients with known or suspected coronary heart disease. Noninvasive assessment of coronary artery calcium or noninvasive coronary angiography may be performed using computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging. These techniques evaluate the presence of atherosclerosis rather than ischemia. Conversely, nuclear cardiology is the most widely used noninvasive approach for the assessment of myocardial perfusion and function. These techniques coupled with the development of dedicated image fusion software packages to merge data sets from different modalities have paved the way for hybrid imaging. This article provides a description of the available noninvasive imaging techniques in the assessment of coronary anatomy, myocardial perfusion, and cardiac function in patients with known or suspected coronary heart disease. © 2014 SIMI.

Internal and emergency medicine (Testo stamp.)

Keywords

Cardiac computed tomography, Cardiac magnetic resonance, Coronary heart disease, Myocardial positron emission tomography, Noninvasive cardiac imaging, Nuclear cardiology

CNR authors

Cuocolo Alberto, Acampa Wanda, Pellegrino Teresa

CNR institutes

IBB – Istituto di biostrutture e bioimmagini