Evaluation of coronary artery disease with non-invasive imaging: state-of-the-art and emerging imaging technologies.

In the last decades, the in-hospital mortality of patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) has progressively declined thanks to effective reperfusion strategies. However, this favorable trend has been paralleled by an increasing number of patients who, having survived the acute infarction, remain exposed to a considerable long-term risk of sudden cardiac death or heart failure. The identification of patients at high risk after STEMI is crucial for effective risk stratification, patient management as well as an efficient allocation of public health resources. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) has become the non-invasive imaging modality of choice for studying patients after STEMI given its unique ability to provide a comprehensive assessment of cardiac structure and function along with a quantitative multiparametric characterization of the necrotic myocardium. Therefore, we will investigate the role of state-of-the-art and emerging CMR techniques in improving risk stratification in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Another line of our research involves a collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in which we investigate the potential of state-of-the-art dual-energy CT and a prototype spectral photon-counting CT scanner to improve characterization of CAD over conventional CT technology and CMR.