Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is a
versatile imaging modality that enables aetiological assessment
and provides additional information to that of standard
echocardiography in a significant proportion of patients with
heart failure. In addition to highly accurate and reproducible
assessment of ventricular volumes and replacement fibrosis,
multiparametric mapping techniques have rapidly evolved to
further expand the diagnostic and prognostic applications in
various conditions ranging from acute inflammatory and ischaemic
cardiomyopathy, to cardiac involvement in systemic
diseases such as sarcoidosis and iron overload cardiomyopathy.
In this review, we discuss the established role of T2*
imaging and rapidly evolving clinical applications of myocardial
T2 mapping as quantitative adjuncts to established qualitative
imaging techniques.