title: Diagnostic and imaging considerations: role of viability.
abstract: Left ventricular systolic dysfunction is a recognised feature of heart failure. In developed nations, the leading cause of left ventricular systolic dysfunction is coronary artery disease. Revascularisation is a treatment strategy for patients with predominant symptoms of heart failure and significant left ventricular dysfunction. Presence or absence of myocardial viability has been shown to affect outcome after revascularisation. There are various techniques to assess myocardial viability. However, limitations of current literature, lack of completed randomised trials and high peri-procedural trials create significant uncertainty about the optimal strategy. This review focuses on the role of non-invasive testing for myocardial viability in patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction and heart failure and also outlines the pros and cons of each technique.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Northwick Park Hospital, Watford Road, Harrow Middlesex, HA1 3UJ, United Kingdom. roxy.senior@virgin.net
authors.forename: Roxy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Senior
mesh_terms: D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods; D025401:Echocardiography, Stress; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009204:Myocardial Revascularization; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon