State of the art: non-invasive imaging in ischaemic heart disease

Abstract

Evaluation of non-invasive imaging modalities is shifting to an assessment of their effect on clinical outcomes rather than of their diagnostic accuracy. For this reason, we present the most useful and commonly used non-invasive tests in the clinical scenario of patients with suspected or already known coronary artery disease in terms of their diagnostic accuracy and prognostic stratification. Each of the four sections, dedicated to a single imaging method (echocardiography, coronary computed tomography angiography, nuclear imaging and cardiac magnetic resonance), describes its early clinical applications, the main current indications and the more promising future field of interest.