Imaging in cardiovascular prevention

Abstract

Imaging tools in preventive cardiology can be divided into imaging modalities to assess pre-clinical and clinical atherosclerosis and functional assessments of vascular function or vascular inflammation. To calculate the likelihood of pre-clinical atherosclerosis intima-media thickness as well as coronary calcium scoring are most frequently used. However, beyond these two there are other parameters derived by ultrasound and multi-detector computed tomography as well as magnetic resonance imaging and nuclear/molecular imaging which are discussed in the chapter. Functional tests include flow-mediated dilatation, pulse wave analysis, and the ankle-brachial index. In clinical research other invasive measurements such as intravascular ultrasound/virtual histology/elastography, optical coherence tomography as well as thermography are being used. However, their value in clinical prevention still needs to be established.