Valvular Heart Diseases and Cardiac MRI
In recent years, valvular heart disease (VHD) has attracted increased interest from the medical community in the wake of the development of novel transcatheter interventional techniques. This surge of interest has led to important improvements in cardiac imaging and multimodality assessment of the cardiac valves aiming to improve the clinical management of a constantly ageing population afflicted by VHD (Binder et al. SA Heart [Internet] 17(1), 2020). Although echocardiography remains the mainstay technique for VHD evaluation, recent advancements has brought cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) into the spotlight, with added value to echocardiography in many scenarios. CMR allows full characterization of valve morphology without limitations regarding acoustic window or limited imaging planes, alongside quantification of cardiac flows, ventricular volumes and tissue characterization with delayed enhancement imaging. Moreover, CMR is the first-line imaging modality for evaluating the right ventricle and pulmonary valve disease (Myerson. Magn Reson 14(1):7, 2012). In this chapter, we review the role of CMR in VHD, including aortic, pulmonic, mitral, tricuspid and prosthetic valve evaluation.
