Attention ASE Members:

The ASE has gone green! Visit www.aseuniversity.org to earn free continuing medical education credit through an online activity related to this article. Certificates are available for immediate access upon successful completion of the activity. Nonmembers will need to join the ASE to access this great member benefit!

Organization of the Writing Committee

The writing committee was made up of experts in pericardial diseases and imaging of the pericardium from the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE), the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging, and the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. The document was reviewed by the ASE Guidelines and Standards Committee and official reviewers nominated by the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging and the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography.

The objective of this document is to provide a consensus expert opinion on the appropriate use of multimodality imaging in the diagnosis and management of pericardial diseases. This document will allow clinicians to weigh the evidence on the strengths and weaknesses of a particular imaging modality in the evaluation and management of pericardial diseases. Of note, there have been only a small number of randomized clinical trials on pericardial diseases ; thus, we use a consensus of expert opinions in this report and do not attempt to use the standard level-of-evidence grading system (Levels A-C). The document focuses on multimodality imaging of pericardial diseases, including echocardiography, computed tomography (CT), and cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR), and is not comprehensive with regard to clinical presentation and treatment, which have been discussed in recent reviews.