Unidentified heart valve disease is associated with a significant morbidity and
mortality. It has therefore become important to accurately identify, assess and
monitor patients with this condition in order that appropriate and timely
intervention can occur. Although echocardiography has emerged as the predominant
imaging modality for this purpose, recent advances in cardiac magnetic resonance and
cardiac computed tomography indicate that they may have an important contribution to
make. The current review describes the assessment of regurgitant and stenotic heart
valves by multimodality imaging (echocardiography, cardiac computed tomography and
cardiac magnetic resonance) and discusses their relative strengths and
weaknesses.