MAGNETIC-RESONANCE-IMAGING IN CARDIOLOGY

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a new non-invasive method of cardiac and vascular imaging, which may provide important morphological and functional informations. Spin-echo technique has proven usefulness in pericardial diseases, tumors, left ventricular hypertrophy and congenital heart disease. Cine-MRI can appreciate intracardiac and intravascular flows. Nevertheless, development of MRI remains limited by performances and expansion of other imaging techniques, particularly trans and intrathoracic echocardiography. Magnetic nuclear spectroscopy is still at the stage of preliminar studies for in vivo tissular characterisation and metabolic analysis.