Magnetic Resonance Elastography of the Heart

A variety of disease processes are known to affect the mechanical properties of the heart. Historically, quantifying myocardial stiffness has involved invasive, catheter-based procedures that provided a single global estimate of this biomarker. Recent research efforts have demonstrated that it is possible to noninvasively spatially resolve myocardial stiffness using magnetic resonance elastograpy (MRE). This chapter describes these developments, provides preliminary results, and points to potential clinical applications.