Clinical applications of multimodality cardiac imaging

Recent decades have brought marked advances in cardiac imaging. Although the single imaging techniques have seen their fields of application expanding, the definition of cardiac pathophysiology frequently demands a multimodality approach. In fact, multimodality imaging offers the chance to perform an integrated anatomo-functional cardiac evaluation in a completely non-invasive manner. This result is obtained by combining the information derived from mainly anatomical imaging modalities, such as multi-slice computed tomography and magnetic resonance, with the functional measures derived from nuclear imaging techniques, single photon emission computed tomography or positron emission tomography. This review will focus on the clinical applications of multimodality cardiac imaging, explaining the need for an integrated evaluation of myocardial structure and function that may enhance the clinician’s ability to characterize cardiac pathology.