Cardiac magnetic resonance myocardial feature tracking: feasibility for use in left ventricular non-compaction

Abstract

Background Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) myocardial feature tracking (FT) is emerging as a sensitive and reproducible method for measuring myocardial strain parameters without the need to acquire additional images. Up until now adult CMRFT studies have primarily focussed on the reproducibility of the software,with very few studies addressing disease states beyond ischaemic cardiomyopathy. The aim of this pilot study was to assess the feasibility of cine-images derived quantitative CMR FT strain parameters to differentiate between normal individuals and patients with Left ventricular non-compaction (LVNC). Methods Patients were identified retrospectively from an established clinical CMR database. 8 LVNC patients with negative invasive angiography or stress CMR myocardial perfusion imaging were compared to 21 normal controls. LVNC was defined according to the Petersen criteria,with an end-diastolic ratio of non-compacted to compacted layer (NC/C) >2.3. LV morphological and functional parameters were performed off-line on a dedicated workstation. CMR 4chamber(4CH) and mid-ventricular short axis(SAX) cineimages were analysed in systole(S) and diastole(D) using dedicated FT software(Diogenes MRI,TomTec Imaging Systems,Munich Germany).