Use of cardiac magnetic resonance and echocardiography in population-based studies: why, where, and when?

Population research studies are often directed toward eliciting the association of physiological measurements (eg, left ventricular [LV] function) and clinical variables (eg, hypertension) with outcomes.1 Although cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is known to be accurate and versatile, until recently, the diffusion of CMR technology was too limited by technical and logistic challenges to consider its use in population studies on a large scale (>10 000). However, with recent technical developments, CMR has reached a level of maturity and ease of use, which makes its use in large-scale population studies a practical reality for the first time. The goal of this review is to facilitate the process of selecting imaging methods for population research studies based on design requirements and existing experience with the techniques.