The cardiac atlas project: Towards a map of the heart

Abstract

Although much is known about the pathophysiological cellular processes -underlying heart disease, little is known about how the heart remodels structurally and -functionally during the development of disease, and how particular presentations of disease fit into the spectrum of functional manifestations across patient groups. If clinicians were able to map the structure and function of the heart in a standard way, they would be able to characterize a particular patient's function with the range of functional characteristics derived from large populations of patients. This would enable more precise quantification of the type and severity of disease, as well as more robust measures of evaluation of the effects of treatment.