The current and future role of imaging of thoracic aortic disease: a North American society for cardiovascular imaging commentary on the 2022 AHA/ACC guidelines for the diagnosis and management of aortic disease

The 2022 AHA/ACC Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Aortic Disease introduced important updates for managing thoracic aorta aortic disease (TAD). In particular, the Guidelines underscore multimodality imaging's role in diagnosis, risk assessment, and monitoring of patients with TAD. This commentary aims to distill key imaging aspects from the Guidelines to provide a concise reference for the cardiovascular imaging community. Primary areas of focus include: (1) The importance of imagers in the multidisciplinary TAD care team, (2) Appropriate imaging techniques along with their strengths and weaknesses, (3) Aortic measurement methods and how aortic size and growth should contribute to TAD risk assessment, (4) Imaging evaluation of acute aortic syndrome. We have also highlighted several areas of ongoing uncertainty and confusion, specifically related to aortic measurement techniques and descriptive terminology. Finally, a perspective on the future of TAD imaging is discussed with a focus on advanced imaging tools and techniques as well as the potential role of artificial intelligence.