title: New imaging modalities to assess cardiac function:  not just pretty pictures.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The following review will focus on the current advances in both echocardiography and cardiovascular MRI (CMRI) in the assessment of cardiac function.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The assessment of cardiac function in pediatric patients and in congenital heart disease (CHD) patients has dramatically improved over the last several years. The advancement of transthoracic echocardiography with tissue Doppler imaging, speckle tracking, and three-dimensional echocardiography has enabled strain assessment and the ability to estimate ventricular volumes in these complex patients. In the last few decades, CMRI has become an imaging modality that is now part of the standard tools used for cardiac assessment. With superb two-dimensional and three-dimensional resolution, CMRI allows clear delineation of cardiac and extracardiac structures as well as accurate and reproducible assessment of ventricular volume and function. The most recent and robust contributions of CMRI are its ability to provide characterization of the myocardium and the development of new measurements of global and regional myocardial mechanics and function.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Recent advances in echocardiography and CMRI allow a better understanding of myocardial mechanics and composition as well as accurate assessment of ventricular volume and global and regional function in the complex and unique anatomy often found in CHD patients.
authors.affiliation: Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Monroe Carell Jr Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, Nashville, Tennessee 37215, USA. david.parra@vanderbilt.edu
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Parra
authors.forename: Kimberly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vera
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000639:trends; D005260:Female; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000639:trends; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results