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Editorial The Role of Cardiac MRI Stress Testing “Make a Better Mouse Trap . . . ” Gerald M. Pohost, MD; Robert W.W. Biederman, MD ear the turn of the 20th century, Ralph Waldo corresponding wall motion abnormalities in territories sup- NEmerson said, “If a man can make a better mouse plied by critically stenosed coronary arteries. To date, three trap than his neighbor, the world will make a beaten imaging technologies have been coupled with “stress”: path to his door.” In the 1900s, we have seen particularly (1) radionuclide imaging with 201Tl, 99mTc sestamibi, or illuminating examples of this prediction: from the model T similar agents to allow detection of perfusion defects and Ford, which in one decade eliminated the horse-and-buggy (2) 2D echocardiography to visualize abnormal wall motion era, to the introduction of the heart-lung machine by John or (3) first-pass or multigated radionuclide imaging. A new Gibbon, Jr, in 1953, which indelibly changed medicine, and, approach challenging these techniques has recently been more recently, Andreas Gruentzig’s intrepid introduction of recognized: the cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) stress intracoronary angioplasty, revolutionizing the treatment of test. coronary artery disease (CAD). The reason the CMR stress test is becoming increasingly important is related to several factors. In large part, it is