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Sparsely sampled cardiac cine accelerated acquisitions show promise for faster evaluation of left-ventricular function. Myocardial strain estimation using image feature tracking methods is also becoming widespread. However, it is not known whether highly accelerated acquisitions also provide reliable feature tracking strain estimates. Twenty patients and twenty healthy volunteers were imaged with conventional 14-beat/slice cine acquisition (STD), 4× accelerated 4-beat/slice acquisition with iterative reconstruction (R4), and a 9.2× accelerated 2-beat/slice real-time acquisition with sparse sampling and iterative reconstruction (R9.2). Radial and circumferential strains were calculated using non-rigid registration in the mid-ventricle short-axis slice and inter-observer errors were evaluated. Consistency was assessed using intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) and bias with Bland–Altman analysis. Peak circumferential strain magnitude was highly consistent between STD and R4 and R9.2 (ICC = 0.876 and 0.884, respectively). Average bias was −1.7 ± 2.0 %, p

Background Pulse wave velocity (PWV), a measure of arterial stiffness, has been demonstrated to be an independent predictor of adverse cardiovascular outcomes. This can be derived non-invasively using cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR). Changes in PWV during exercise may reveal further information on vascular pathology. However, most known CMR methods for quantifying PWV are currently unsuitable for exercise stress testing. Methods A velocity-sensitive real-time acquisition and evaluation (RACE) pulse sequence was adapted to provide interleaved acquisition of two locations in the descending aorta (at the level of the pulmonary artery bifurcation and above the renal arteries) at 7.8 ms temporal resolution. An automated method was used to calculate the foot-to-foot transit time of the velocity pulse wave. The RACE method was validated against a standard gated phase contrast (STD) method in flexible tube phantoms using a pulsatile flow pump. The method was applied in 50 healthy volunteers (28 males) aged 22–75 years using a MR-compatible cycle ergometer to achieve moderate work rate (38 ± 22 W, with a 31 ± 12 bpm increase in heart rate) in the supine position. Central pulse pressures were estimated using a MR-compatible brachial device. Scan-rescan reproducibility was evaluated in nine volunteers. Results Phantom PWV was 22 m/s (STD) vs. 26 ± 5 m/s (RACE) for a butyl rubber tube, and 5.5 vs. 6.1 ± 0.3 m/s for a latex rubber tube. In healthy volunteers PWV increased with age at both rest (R2 = 0.31 p

We developed an interactive tool for biventricular function analysis from cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) images based on the guide point modelling (GPM) approach [1]. First we built a deformable model of both ventricles of the human heart which consisted of 138 nodes and 82 hexahedral elements, each with bicubic-Bezier-linear interpolation. The model was fitted to a digitized human data set for use as the prior shape in the GPM scheme, which we modified to have a 'predictor' step that used a host mesh fitting algorithm [2] to generate predicted points (PPs) based on the user-defined guide points (GPs). Then the model was fitted towards both GPs and PPs through linear least square minimization. The inclusion of the PPs significantly improved the numerical stability of the linear least square fit and significantly accelerated the solution time. This methodology requires further validation for future application in clinical biventricular analysis.

The majority of patients with clinically diagnosed heart failure have normal systolic pump function and are commonly categorized as suffering from diastolic heart failure. The left ventricle (LV) remodels its structure and function to adapt to pathophysiological changes in geometry and loading conditions, which in turn can alter the passive ventricular mechanics. In order to better understand passive ventricular mechanics, a LV finite element (FE) model was customized to geometric data segmented from in vivo tagged magnetic resonance images (MRI) data and myofibre orientation derived from ex vivo diffusion tensor MRI (DTMRI) of a canine heart using nonlinear finite element fitting techniques. MRI tissue tagging enables quantitative evaluation of cardiac mechanical function with high spatial and temporal resolution, whilst the direction of maximum water diffusion in each voxel of a DTMRI directly corresponds to the local myocardial fibre orientation. Due to differences in myocardial geometry between in vivo and ex vivo imaging, myofibre orientations were mapped into the geometric FE model using host mesh fitting (a free form deformation technique). Pressure recordings, temporally synchronized to the tagging data, were used as the loading constraints to simulate the LV deformation during diastole. Simulation of diastolic LV mechanics allowed us to estimate the stiffness of the passive LV myocardium based on kinematic data obtained from tagged MRI. Integrated physiological modelling of this kind will allow more insight into mechanics of the LV on an individualized basis, thereby improving our understanding of the underlying structural basis of mechanical dysfunction under pathological conditions.