Tracers and contrast agents in cardiovascular imaging: present and future.

This brief article addresses the current status and future potential of nuclear medicine, X-ray computed tomography (CT), ultrasound (US), and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases. The currently perceived advantages and disadvantages, as well as the possible future roles, of each of the modalities with regard to the evaluation of coronary artery disease are delineated. The certain advent of MR and US myocardial contrast agents, combined with the inexorable pressures of health care reform, will alter the future usage patterns of all four modalities. Future debates about which modality should be used in which clinical situation will be based not on "anatomy vs function", nor on which specialty owns which "turf", but rather on the issues of cost effectiveness and patient outcomes.