Myocardial Tissue Characterization by Cardiac Magnetic Resonance: A Primer for the Clinician

Imaging plays an important role in the diagnosis, management, and prognosis of cardiac conditions. Over the last three decades, cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) has established itself as a promising imaging tool in the assessment of patients with various cardiac ailments. CMR is now being considered as a one-stop-shop diagnostic test because of its ability to comprehensively assess the heart. The greatest strength of CMR is its ability to characterize the myocardium noninvasively aiding in the diagnosis of patients. Despite its growing use worldwide, the adoption of the modality in India has been relatively slow. One major reason for this is the lack of expertise and resources to perform CMR. Another reason for the slow adoption of CMR in India is the limited understanding of practicing clinicians on how the modality works and what the various clinical applications of CMR are. In this review, we aimed to address these shortcomings by outlining some basics of CMR and its utility in day-to-day practice with a special focus on myocardial tissue characterization.