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A CNN based method for cardiac MRI tag tracking was developed and validated. A synthetic data simulator was created to generate large amounts of training data using natural images, a Bloch equation simulation, a broad range of tissue properties, and programmed ground-truth motion. The method was validated using both an analytical deforming cardiac phantom and in vivo data with manually tracked reference motion paths. In the analytical phantom, error was investigated relative to SNR, and accurate results were seen for SNR > 10 (displacement error 0.3 mm). Excellent agreement was seen in vivo for tag locations (mean displacement difference = − 0.02 pixels, 95% CI [ − 0.73, 0.69]) and calculated cardiac circumferential strain (mean difference = 0.006, 95% CI [ − 0.012, 0.024]). Automated tag tracking with a CNN trained on synthetic data is both accurate and precise.

Since heart contraction results from the electrically activated contraction of millions of cardiomyocytes, a measure of cardiomyocyte shortening mechanistically underlies cardiac contraction. In this work we aim to measure preferential aggregate cardiomyocyte (“myofiber”) strains based on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data acquired to measure both voxel-wise displacements through systole and myofiber orientation. In order to reduce the effect of experimental noise on the computed myofiber strains, we recast the strains calculation as the solution of a boundary value problem (BVP). This approach does not require a calibrated material model, and consequently is independent of specific myocardial material properties. The solution to this auxiliary BVP is the displacement field corresponding to assigned values of myofiber strains. The actual myofiber strains are then determined by minimizing the difference between computed and measured displacements. The approach is validated using an analytical phantom, for which the ground-truth solution is known. The method is applied to compute myofiber strains using in vivo displacement and myofiber MRI data acquired in a mid-ventricular left ventricle section in N=8 swine subjects. The proposed method shows a more physiological distribution of myofiber strains compared to standard approaches that directly differentiate the displacement field.