Ultrasound or echocardiography has been a useful tool for the cardiologist for quite some years now. Echocardiography, often combined with Doppler technology, will provide information about the cardiac valves (stenosis and regurgitations) as well as the contractility of the cardiac muscle in different areas. Echocardiography can in other words tell a lot about the cardiac performance. Angiography is used to visualize the coronary arteries prior to surgery or as a mapping for endo-vascular stenting.
Nuclear medicine (NM) is frequently used to assess myocardial perfusion in ischaemic heart disease, and it can also be used to assess cardiac function. The function assessment is comparable to assessment by echocardiography, but more robust.
MRI has become increasingly popular in cardiac imaging, especially in congenital heart disease, ischaemic heart disease and cardiomyopathies. MRI is not able to define the precise coronary artery anatomy, but can define infarcted myocardium and define regions of ischaemia. MRI offers unique possibilities for non-invasive imaging, and may in the future become the gold-standard for cardiac imaging and functional assessment.
