Imaging outcomes in cardiovascular clinical trials.

Imaging has had an important role in cardiovascular disease over the past decade, with the increasing reliance on imaging outcomes as surrogates for clinical end points. Clinical trials now show a trend towards the use of functional, rather than anatomical, imaging modalities. Use of these powerful tools needs to be optimized in the design of cardiovascular trials. In the future, imaging modalities will be fundamental to research and drug development and an increased emphasis will be placed on the relationship between the results of imaging studies and clinical outcomes.