Cardiac imaging: current and emerging applications.

Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) scan have made big inroads as modalities used for evaluation of various pathologies of the heart. Cardiac MRI is typically used for perfusion and viability studies as well as to study various cardiomyopathies, valvular diseases and the pericardium. It has been used in the evaluation of congenital heart diseases over the last two decades. Cardiac CT is used mainly for the evaluation of the coronary arteries, typically in the setting of "to rule out coronary artery disease".