An overview on the advances in cardiovascular interventional MR imaging.

Interventional cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (iCMR) represents a new discipline whose systematic development will foster minimally invasive interventional procedures without radiation exposure. New generations of open, wide and short bore MR scanners and real time sequences made cardiovascular intervention possible. MR compatible endovascular catheters and guide-wires are needed for delivery of devices such as stents or atrial septal defect (ASD) closures. Catheter tracking is based on active and passive approaches. Currently performed MR-guided procedures are used to monitor, navigate and track endovascular catheters and to deliver local therapeutic agents to targets, such as infarcted myocardium and vascular walls. Heating of endovascular MR catheters, guide-wires and devices during imaging still presents high safety risks. MR contrast media improve the capabilities of MR imaging by enhancing blood signal, pathologic targets (such as myocardial infarctions and atherosclerotic plaques), endovascular catheters and by tracking injected therapeutic agents. Labeling injected soluble therapeutic agents, genes or cells with MR contrast media enables interventionalists to ensure the administration of the drugs in the target and to trace their distribution in the targets. The future clinical use of this iCMR technique requires (1) high spatial and temporal resolution imaging, (2) special catheters and devices and (3) effective therapeutic agents, genes or cells. These conditions are available at a low scale at the present time and need to be developed in the near future. Such progress will lead to improved patient care and minimize invasiveness.