[Ischemic burden vs. coronary artery morphology : What is crucial for the indication of revascularization?].

Ischemic heart disease still represents the leading cause of death in the western world despite a decrease of mortality in the last decade. For the diagnostics of coronary artery morphology, invasive coronary angiography represents the gold standard. Nevertheless, in recent years the importance of functional diagnostics of the coronary arteries has increased and various imaging procedures for the measurement of fractional flow reserve (FFR) during coronary angiography were established and recommended for ischemia testing in the actual guidelines on myocardial revascularization.Imaging modalities for diagnostics of the functional relevance of coronary artery disease include stress echocardiography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and positron emission tomography (PET). These procedures enable advanced risk stratification and therapy guiding in patients with suspected or known coronary artery disease. In future algorithms, hybrid imaging may facilitate the determination of anatomical and functional aspects after only one investigation.In the present article, the role of ischemia testing is compared with morphological methods for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease, individual risk stratification, and therapy guiding.