Physicians have yet to find a simple, inexpensive test to screen for the risk of sudden cardiac death. But they are learning how cardiac MR imaging may help stratify risk and guide treatment for conditions that can strike without warning.

Figuring out how to treat postinfarction left ventricular remodeling using delayed-enhancement cardiac MR is not so cut and dried as it seems.

British researchers have used T2* measures of cardiac iron loading to show the value of a new drug treatment for b-thalassemia, a genetic blood disorder. The laborious clinical trial involved transporting a mobile MRI system three times from London to the Mediterranean island of Sardinia.

MR imaging of pacemakers and implantable cardioverter devices is not for every imaging service. But the procedure is feasible, despite American College of Radiology recommendations to the contrary, according to a study from Oklahoma.

Parallel imaging has reduced acquisition time for contrast MR, making it possible to use 3D MR angiography in imaging infants with suspected congenital abnormalities.

Results from a prospective study bolster confidence that a negative adenosine perfusion contrast MR test means patients have a good chance of surviving the next six months without major heart problems.

Adenosine rest-stress perfusion may represent nearly half the imaging volume at some clinics, but due to safety questions some physicians are sticking with dobutamine for pharmacological stress testing.

Delayed-enhancement MRI creates a clear picture of the atrial scarring produced during pulmonary vein RF ablation, according to researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.