Multimodality Imaging in Ischemic Cardiomyopathy

Abstract

Ischemic heart disease is the most common heart pathology in medical practice. Proper assessment of the size of myocardium injury and its consequences on the heart function is extremely important both for a correct drug therapy and for interventional approach. Most frequently the left ventricle is affected. The need for accurate evaluation of the impact of left ventricular myocardial damage has led to the development of new imaging techniques and improvement of the existing ones. At the moment the most commonly used imaging method for the assessment of left ventricular function is echocardiography. Cardiac Magnetic Resonance and nuclear tomography are precious imaging techniques as well. They are more expensive but bring valuable information when used in adequate situations.