Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging to detect ischemia in chronic coronary syndromes: state of the art.

The new 2019 European Society of Cardiology guidelines for the diagnosis and management of chronic coronary syndromes emphasize the role of noninvasive functional imaging of myocardial ischemia in diagnosing coronary artery disease to guide decision making regarding revascularization. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) stands out relative to other imaging modalities given its high safety profile, absence of ionizing radiation, and its versatility in encoding various image contrasts. It also allows an assessment of myocardial function, ischemia, and viability as well as permits tissue characterization including detection of edema in a single examination. In recent years, a number of meta‑analyses and studies considering the role of CMR for detecting ischemia have been published. The recent multicenter randomized MR‑INFORM trial has demonstrated the clinical utility of CMR in patients with stable angina and cardiovascular risk factors. This landmark study has proved that a perfusion CMR‑based strategy leads to a lower number of revascularizations while being noninferior to an invasive coronary angiography with fractional flow reserve-guided therapy in terms of major adverse cardiac events at 1 year. In light of recent and future technical improvements, CMR will become increasingly important in the assessment of myocardial ischemia in patients with chronic coronary syndromes.