Heart attack is the most frequent cause of death in the western world. Doctors are using tables and imaging methods to allow to predict if their patient will get a heart attack. Magnetic resonance imaging is a young method to acquire images of the heart. Doctors get high resolution images with plenty of information, without any harmful radiation. This method - which has been used in children's heart disease for many years - is able to improve prediction of a hazardous event in a large group of patients. During the yearly meeting of the International Society of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance and the imaging specialists of the European Society of Cardiology in Rome from February 2nd to 4th two milestone papers will be presented. Researchers around Dr. Greg Hundley from the Wake Forrest University School of Medicine found, that a stress test with magnetic resonance imaging identifies individuals with a high risk of a myocardial infarction or death within the group of patients presenting with chest pain. In a different study by the group of Dr. Raymond Kwong at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to find a subgroup of patients with diabetes most likely to have a hazardous event.
Magnetic resonance imaging of the heart is a risk free method to identify patients at risk for a heart attack or death.
The Society of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (www.scmr.org) is the International Society for cardiologists, radiologists, technicians and scientists aiming at the development of Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the heart. The Working Group on Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance of the European Society of Cardiology (www.escardio.org/bodies/WG/wg26/) is the subgroup of Magnetic Resonance Imaging specialists within the European Society of Cardiology.
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