Echocardiography in the Era of Multimodality Cardiovascular Imaging

Table 1

A summary table comparing the four main modalities in cardiac imaging.

	Echocardiography	Nuclear cardiology	CMR	CCT
Availability	+++	++	++	++
Cost	+	++	++	++
Ionising radiation	−	++	−	++
Extracardiac information	+	+	+++	+++
Coronary artery assessment	+	−	++	+++
Assessment of systolic function	+++	++	+++	++
Assessment of diastolic function	+++	+	+	+
Assessment of valvular function	+++	−	++	+
Physiological stress testing	+	+	−	−
Pharmacological stress testing	+	+	+	−
Contraindication	−	−	Most implanted devices	−
Limited by renal failure	−	−	+	+
Risk of claustrophobia	−	+	++	+