The consistency of myocardial strain derived from heart deformation analysis

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to  assess the consistency of semi-automated myocardial strain analysis by prototype software across field strengths, temporal resolutions, and examinations. 35 volunteers (48 ± 13 years; 20% women) and 25 patients (54 ± 12 years; 44% women) without significant cardiac dysfunction underwen t cine cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) at 1.5 T with a temporal resolution of 39.2 msec. 34 subjects also underwent imaging at 3.0 T; 16 had repeat examinations within 14 days; and 9 underwent CMR with temporal resolutions of 12.5 and 39.2 msec on the same day. Prototype heart deformatio n analysis (HDA) software was used to retrospectively quantify strain from segmented balanced steady state free precession (bSSFP) cinegraphic images. Myocardial contours were automatically generated on short axis images and drawn at end-diastole by two independent reviewers on long-axis images. Con tours were automatically propagated throughout the cardiac cycle. Global and regional peak systolic strain were compared across observers, field strengths, temporal resolutions, and examinations. Inter-observer agreement was excellent (ICC >  0.87, p <  0.01). Inter-examination variability was low, ranging from 1.7 (1.0–2.4)% to 2.5 (1.9–3.1)%, except for radial strain: 9.2 (7.6–10.5)%. Most global and regional strain values were not significantly different across field strengths and temporal resolutions (p >  0.05). Normal...
Source: The International Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging - Category: Radiology Source Type: research