Magnetic resonance imaging of great vessel, myocardial, and pericardial disease.

The outstanding ability of magnetic resonance imaging to provide anatomic information over a large field of view in any plane in patients of all sizes and body habitus has made it the current modality of choice for evaluating the thoracic aorta and for differentiating constrictive pericarditis from restrictive cardiomyopathy. The lack of radiation exposure makes it particularly advantageous for patients requiring serial studies. It serves as an important clinical adjunct to ultrasound in evaluating diseases of the abdominal aorta, other great vessels, the myocardium, and the pericardium. Myocardial function, thickness, and mass can be assessed without geometric assumptions. Myocardial tagging offers a unique way to study cardiac biomechanics. The combination of anatomic and quantitative functional information becoming available in clinically reasonable acquisition times makes magnetic resonance imaging an increasingly attractive noninvasive tool. The contribution of tissue characterization has been disappointing, but may improve with utilization of contrast agents; that of in vivo spectroscopy remains investigational.