الفهرس 
Cardiac AnatomyOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Although mortality associated with ischemic heart disease (IHD) has declined in the recent decades due to the therapeutic improvements and to the prevention campaigns reducing the incidence of myocardial infarction (MI), IHD remains the leading cause of death in adults in developed countries and its prevalence will continue to increase. In times of constrained financial budgets, the increasing prevalence of IHD will urge for rational use of diagnostic and therapeutic means. In the last 2 decades magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has emerged as a prime player in the clinical and preclinical detection of IHD as well in the prognosis assessment. The newest cardiac MRI techniques can be used to study IHD patients and to enlarge the knowledge on the complex IHD pathophysiology, with highlights on detection of obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD), on acute coronary syndromes and on chronic ischemic cardiomyopathy. Diagnostic imaging has played an important role in the proper assessment and management of coronary artery disease. Advances in rapid magnetic resonance (MR) imaging technology and its application to cardiac imaging have shown that MR imaging has tremendous potential for evaluation of coronary artery disease and cardiac disease in general. The concept of a comprehensive cardiac MR imaging evaluation has been an evolving theme during the past decade, with the vision of a complete cardiac examination that could be performed in a relatively short time (e.g., <1 hour). A single examination that provides information on regional myocardial contractility and contractile reserve, regional perfusion reserve, and the detailed anatomy of the coronary arteries can be envisioned on the basis of MR imaging with tagging and dobutamine stress testing, gadolinium-enhanced measurement of regional perfusion, and advances in MR coronary angiography, respectively. Cardiac MR imaging (CMR) is currently considered as the gold standard for measurement of left ventricular function, volumes and mass. The reproducibility of this technique is high as compared to other techniques, such as left ventricular angiography and echocardiography. To acquire images for functional assessment we use electrocardiography gating and breath holding for approximately 5-10 heart beats. Functional images are acquired using a steady state in free precession (SSFP) sequence with a high contrast between blood pool and myocardium. CMR has a spatial resolution of approximately 1.5×1.8 mm and a temporal resolution of 50 ms.