title: [Progress on cardiac imaging techniques].
abstract: The development of a noninvasive diagnostic test follows a typical timeline: description, enthusiasm, clinical assessment and application, and epidemiological study. However, for techniques such as echocardiography that are widely available, have no harmful effects and are inexpensive, clinical applications may become widespread before they have been evaluated. Real progress is being made with the use of new methodologies, such as myocardial deformation echocardiography and three-dimensional echocardiography. Three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography has returned echocardiography to its place at the center of modern cardiac diagnosis after it had been displaced in recent years by cardiac multislice CT and cardiac magnetic resonance. However, the new radiological techniques that have helped to reduce radiation exposure to patients and that have improved image acquisition could restore CT to the heart of general cardiac diagnosis. At the moment, it is not possible to displace the echocardiography from its central role in cardiac imaging. This article contains a review of the most important publications on echocardiography, magnetic resonance imaging and cardiac CT that have appeared recently in cardiology journals, mainly during 2010.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Cardiología, Hospital Carlos Haya, Málaga, España.
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vivancos-Delgado
authors.forename: José J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Gómez de Diego
authors.forename: Río
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Aguilar-Torres
authors.forename: José F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Forteza-Alberti
mesh_terms: D001018:Aortic Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000628:therapy; D057791:Cardiac Imaging Techniques / Q000639:trends*; D019560:Echocardiography, Three-Dimensional; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000628:therapy; D006349:Heart Valve Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D018754:Ventricular Dysfunction / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000628:therapy