MRI of the heart: basics for beginners

Kurzfassung: Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has emerged as a highly reproducible and accurate imaging methodology for evaluating a wide variety of congenital and acquired heart diseases, including cardiac masses, myocardial ischemia or infraction, cardiomyopathies, valvular disease, coronary artery disease, pericardial disease, and complex congenital anomalies. The high soft-tissue contrast, availability of a large FOV, multiplanar acquisition capability, and lack of ionizing radiation are particularly appealing features of cardiac MRI. Of course, there are certain technical challenges unique to cardia…