Introduction: general considerations on the future of CMR

Abstract

Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) has become one of the great pillars of cardiac imaging. Modern CMR, as we now practise it, is the result of an enormous method and application development effort that occurred over the past 25 years and has taken CMR from its humble beginnings of anatomical T1- and T2-weighted imaging to the extremely versatile, accurate, and robust technique it is now. The main developments over this time, building on the anatomical imaging, were the establishment of cine imaging for assessment of cardiac function, first-pass perfusion imaging for measurement of perfusion reserve, as well as myocardial blood flow (in millilitre per minute and gram), late gadolinium enhancement for imaging of scar and patchy fibrosis, and two-dimensional flow velocity imaging for the assessment of valve and shunt lesions. This chapter aims to address the question of what the game changers for CMR are in the next 10-20 years.