Clinical applications of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the heart.

The rapid progress of MRI has been remarkable, and it is clear that it will become an important method for cardiac imaging. Its major advantages are the lack of ionizing radiation and the ability to obtain excellent global images of the cardiac walls and chambers without the need for contrast injection or cardiac catheterization. High resolution surface coil imaging, tissue spectroscopy, and other improvements and applications should be rapidly forthcoming.