[Update on cardiac imaging techniques: echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance, and multidetector computed tomography].

This article contains a review of the most important publications on cardiac imaging that have appeared during 2008. During the year, we assisted with the clinical implementation of three-dimensional real-time transesophageal echocardiography, with the use of echocardiography for selecting patients for and monitoring those who underwent percutaneous aortic valve replacement (the majority of centers performing the technique were still in the learning phase), and with the emergence in the clinic of techniques for studying myocardial deformation. Also reviewed are the most significant developments in the application of echocardiography to coronary heart disease and cardiac resynchronization therapy and in 2 other techniques whose use is constantly increasing: cardiac magnetic resonance and multidetector cardiac computed tomography.

[Update on cardiac imaging techniques. Echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance and multidetector computed tomography].

This review of progress in cardiac imaging techniques summarizes the most significant development reported in the last year on different echocardiographic techniques and their application in a range of settings, from the treatment of heart failure to their use in intraoperative monitoring and guiding interventional procedures. Large sections are devoted to recent developments in three-dimensional imaging and, because of its clinical importance, to magnetic resonance imaging. Finally, there is a comprehensive update on the use of multidetector computed tomography in cardiology.

[Update on cardiac imaging techniques. Echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, and multidetector computed tomography].

This article contains a review of the most significant publications on non-invasive recent cardiac imaging techniques in 2005. The increasing importance of technological innovation in echocardiography is reflected in the sections on three dimensional echocardiography, contrast echocardiography, and myocardial deformation measurement techniques (i.e.