Cardiac imaging: present status and future trends.

Cardiac imaging has developed rapidly in a number of different areas, to the extent that the clinical practice of cardiology is highly image dependent. Advances in cross-sectional and three-dimensional imaging using computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging have now found a significant role in demonstrating cardiac anatomy and function alongside the more traditional role of ultrasound which with its intravascular use is becoming a part of intravascular cardiac therapy. The imaging of myocardial perfusion by nuclear medicine techniques including single photon emission tomography and positron emission tomography has grown to add substantial clinical and academic information on cardiac blood flow and metabolism.