5. Conclusion

Technological developments in the cardiovascular field have been numerous since 1960, and biomechanics has always played a central role in these developments. This role is set to continue, with a view to meeting a number of scientific challenges that will enable cardiovascular medicine to become increasingly individualized. These include, but are not limited to, the following research topics:

• elastographic imaging of the heart and arterial wall in vivo to reconstruct their local mechanical property maps and make individualized predictions of cardiovascular risk