Cardiac metabolic imaging: current imaging modalities and future perspectives

In this review, current imaging techniques and their future perspectives in the field of cardiac metabolic imaging in humans are discussed. This includes a range of non-invasive imaging techniques allowing a detailed investigation of cardiac metabolism in health and disease. The main imaging modalities discussed are Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) techniques for determination of metabolite content (triglycerides, glucose, ATP, phosphocreatine and so on), MRI (for myocardial perfusion) Single Photon Emession Computed Tomography (SPECT) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) for quantitation of perfusion and substrate uptake.