First Published in 2004. This is Volume I of six of a series on medical imaging systems techniques and applications. This subject area exemplifies a meaningful manifestation of the power of the technologies of the second industrial revolution. The first chapter in this volume on cardiovascular systems emphasizes the importance of accurate measurements of cardiac shape and dynamics as they reflect the scope of cardiac diseases, the major cause of mortality in developed countries today. Cardiac imaging plays an important role in this regard, and almost the only one in this clinical context.
