Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Jul 24;25(1):42.
doi: 10.1186/s12968-023-00950-z.

Cardiovascular magnetic resonance in the guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology: a comprehensive summary and update

Florian von Knobelsdorff-Brenkenhoff  1 , Jeanette Schulz-Menger  2   3
Affiliations
Review

Cardiovascular magnetic resonance in the guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology: a comprehensive summary and update

Florian von Knobelsdorff-Brenkenhoff et al. J Cardiovasc Magn Reson. .

Abstract

Background: Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) has been established as a valuable tool in clinical and scientific cardiology. This study summarizes the current evidence and role of CMR in the guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and is an update of a former guideline analysis.

Methods: Since the last guideline analysis performed in 2015, 28 new ESC guideline documents have been published. Twenty-seven ESC practice guidelines are currently in use. They were screened regarding CMR in the text, tables and figures. The main CMR-related sentences and recommendations were extracted.

Results: Nineteen of the 27 guidelines (70.4%) contain relevant text passages regarding CMR in the text and include 92 specific recommendations regarding the use of CMR. Seven guidelines (25.9%) mention CMR in the text, and 1 (3.7%, dyslipidemia) does not mention CMR. The 19 guidelines with recommendations regarding the use of CMR contain 40 class-I recommendations (43.5%), 28 class-IIa recommendations (30.4%), 19 class-IIb recommendations (20.7%) and 5 class-III recommendations (5.4%). Most of the recommendations have evidence level C (56/92; 60.9%), followed by level B (34/92; 37.0%) and level A (2/92; 2.2%). Twenty-one recommendations refer to the field of cardiomyopathies, 21 recommendations to stress perfusion imaging, 20 recommendations to vascular assessment, 12 to myocardial tissue characterization in general, 8 to left and right ventricular function assessment, 5 to the pericardium and 5 to myocarditis.

Conclusions: CMR is integral part of the majority of the ESC guidelines. Its representation in the guidelines has increased since the last analysis from 2015, now comprising 92 instead of formerly 63 specific recommendations. To enable patient management in accordance to the ESC guidelines, CMR must become more widely available.

Keywords: Cardiovascular magnetic resonance; ESC; Guideline.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they do not have any competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Summary of the specific ESC recommendations with referral to CMR
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. von Knobelsdorff-Brenkenhoff F, Schulz-Menger J. Role of cardiovascular magnetic resonance in the guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology. J Cardiovasc Magn Reson. 2016;18:6. doi: 10.1186/s12968-016-0225-6. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zeppenfeld K, Tfelt-Hansen J, de Riva M, Winkel BG, Behr ER, Blom NA et al. 2022 ESC Guidelines for the management of patients with ventricular arrhythmias and the prevention of sudden cardiac death. Eur Heart J. 2022;43:3997–4126. - PubMed
    1. Halvorsen S, Mehilli J, Cassese S, Hall TS, Abdelhamid M, Barbato E, et al. 2022 ESC Guidelines on cardiovascular assessment and management of patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery. Eur Heart J. 2022;43:3826–3924. doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehac270. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lyon AR, Lopez-Fernandez T, Couch LS, Asteggiano R, Aznar MC, Bergler-Klein J et al. 2022 ESC Guidelines on cardio-oncology developed in collaboration with the European Hematology Association (EHA), the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ESTRO) and the International Cardio-Oncology Society (IC-OS). Eur Heart J. 2022;43:4229–4361. - PubMed
    1. Humbert M, Kovacs G, Hoeper MM, Badagliacca R, Berger RMF, Brida M, et al. 2022 ESC/ERS guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary hypertension. Eur Heart J. 2022;43:3618–3731. doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehac237. - DOI - PubMed