Dobutamine stress magnetic resonance imaging.
Cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) provides superior imaging of cardiac structure and function that makes it a useful tool in the diagnosis of cardiovascular disease. The heart's response to stress has long been used as a diagnostic aid for identifying a cardiovascular etiology for patient symptoms or for cardiovascular risk stratification. Historically, this has been done with stress nuclear scintigraphy or echocardiography techniques. A distinct advantage of CMR over these modalities is greater image quality resulting in better test characteristics; this review summarizes the techniques and principles involved in dobutamine stress MRI.
Raman
Subha V
SV
The Ohio State University, Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute, 473 W. 12th Ave, 2nd floor, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. Raman-1@medctr.osu.edu