Advancing Precision Cardiovascular Imaging: From Metabolic Disorders to Cardiomyopathies and Rare Cardiac Diseases

Dear Colleagues,

Cardiovascular medicine is experiencing a paradigm shift driven by advanced non-invasive imaging, allowing for earlier detection, precise phenotyping and the personalized management of complex myocardial pathologies. Modern non-invasive imaging modalities have transformed our approach to these complex conditions, moving beyond structural assessment to provide deep insights into tissue characterization, metabolic dysfunction and microvascular hemodynamics. This Special Issue focuses on the rapidly evolving landscape of cardiovascular imaging and its pivotal role in diagnosing, phenotyping and managing cardiometabolic disorders, cardiomyopathies and rare cardiac diseases.

While common metabolic conditions like diabetic cardiomyopathy and obesity-related heart disease pose widespread clinical challenges, rare diseases—such as cardiac amyloidosis, sarcoidosis and Anderson–Fabry disease—frequently suffer from diagnostic delays. Advanced imaging techniques are critical in bridging this gap. We invite original research, comprehensive reviews and innovative case series that demonstrate the clinical utility, diagnostic accuracy and prognostic value of cutting-edge modalities. This includes tissue characterization via cardiac MRI, metabolic and inflammatory insights from nuclear imaging (PET/SPECT), structural and strain metrics from echocardiography, and high-resolution plaque and anatomical assessment via computed tomography (CT). By highlighting novel imaging biomarkers, artificial intelligence applications and comparative multi-modality approaches, this issue aims to provide clinicians and researchers with an updated, evidence-based framework to improve diagnostic precision and patient outcomes in both rare and metabolic cardiac conditions.

Dr. Chung Lieh Hung
Guest Editor

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