Cardiovascular imaging in 2024: review of current research and innovations

Abstract Cardiovascular imaging saw significant advancements in 2024, impacting technology, pathophysiology, and clinical applications. This review provides a comprehensive summary of the most impactful research in cardiovascular imaging published in 2024, highlighting technological advancements, as well as research on ischaemic heart disease, valvular heart disease, cardiomyopathies, and heart failure. It emphasizes the crucial role of artificial intelligence, large-scale studies, and technical improvements across echocardiography, cardiovascular magnetic resonance, computed tomography (CT), and nuclear medicine. In the context of ischaemic heart disease, non-invasive imaging strategies improve patient management and reduce invasive coronary angiograms and unnecessary follow-up testing. Computed tomography plaque characterization is a growing area of research, with potential for predicting disease severity, atherosclerosis progression, and clinical outcomes. In valvular heart disease, several imaging studies focused not only on transcatheter treatments for aortic stenosis, mitral regurgitation, and tricuspid regurgitation but also on specific conditions such as mitral valve prolapse and mitral annular disjunction. Finally, for heart failure and cardiomyopathies, imaging plays a vital role in early diagnosis and risk assessment, with newer techniques surpassing traditional methods in providing morpho-function characterization and in predicting long-term outcomes.