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Molecular Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance: Current Status and Future Prospects

  • Cardiac PET, CT, and MRI (SE Petersen and F Pugliese, Section Editors)
  • Published:
Current Cardiology Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In the Western world and developing countries, the number one causes of mortality and morbidity result from cardiovascular diseases. Cardiovascular diseases represent a wide range of pathologies, including myocardial infarction, peripheral vascular disease, and cerebrovascular disease, which are all linked by a common cause - atherosclerosis. Currently, the diagnosis of atherosclerosis is in most cases established at the end stage of the disease, when patients are administered to the emergency room due to a myocardial infarction or stroke. Even though cardiovascular diseases have an enormous impact on society, there are still limitations in the early diagnosis and the prevention of the disease. Current imaging methods mainly focus on morphological changes that occur at an advanced disease stage, e.g., degree of stenosis. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging and specifically molecular cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging are capable to reveal pathophysiological changes already occurring during early atherosclerotic plaque formation. This allows for the assessment of cardiovascular disease on a level, which goes beyond morphological or anatomical criteria. In this review, we will introduce promising MR-based molecular imaging strategies for the non-invasive assessment of cardiovascular disease.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Charité–University Medicine, Berlin, Germany

    Yvonne Y. Bender, Andreas Pfeifer, Gerd Diederichs, Peter Hoppe, Bernd Hamm & Marcus R. Makowski

  2. Department of Cardiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Heart Center Munich-Bogenhausen, Munich, Germany

    Hans U. Ebersberger

  3. King’s College London, Division of Imaging Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, London, UK

    René M. Botnar

Authors
  1. Yvonne Y. Bender
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  2. Andreas Pfeifer
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  3. Hans U. Ebersberger
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  6. Bernd Hamm
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  7. René M. Botnar
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marcus R. Makowski.

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Conflict of Interest

Yvonne Y. Bender, Hans U. Ebersberger, Andreas Pfeifer, Gerd Diederichs, Peter Hoppe, René M. Botnar, and Marcus R. Makowski declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Bernd Hamm has received grant money from the following organizations to the Department of Radiology, Charité (Berlin, Germany): Abbott, Actelion Pharmaceuticals, Bayer Schering Pharma, Bayer Vital, BRACCO Group, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Charité Research Organisation GmBH, Deutsche Krebshilfe, Dt. Stiftung für Herz-forschung, Essex Pharma, EU Programmes, Fibrex Medical Ins., Focused Ultrasound Surgery Foundation, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Guerbetm, INC Research, InSightec Ltd., IPSEN Pharma, Kendel/MorphoSys AG, Lilly GmBH, Lundbeck GmbH, MeVis Medical Solutions AG, Nexus Oncology, Novartis, Parexel CRO Service, Perceptive, Pfizer GmbH, Philipps, Sanofis-Aventis S.A., Siemens, Spectranetics GmbH, Terumo Medical Corporation, TNS Healthcare GmbH, Toshiba, UCB Pharma, Wyeth Pharma, and Zukunftsfond Berlin (TSB).

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Cardiac PET, CT, and MRI

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Bender, Y.Y., Pfeifer, A., Ebersberger, H.U. et al. Molecular Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance: Current Status and Future Prospects. Curr Cardiol Rep 18, 47 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-016-0719-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-016-0719-8

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