“How many times must a man look up before he can really see the sky?” Rheumatic cardiovascular disease in the era of multimodality imaging

Cardiovascular involvement in rheumatic diseases (RD) is the result of various pathophysiologic mechanisms including inflammation, accelerated atherosclerosis, myocardial ischemia, due to micro- or macro-vascular lesions and fibrosis. Noninvasive cardiovascular imaging, including echocardiography, nuclear techniques, cardiovascular computed tomography and cardiovascular magnetic resonance, represents the main diagnostic tool for early,...