EVALUATION OF MYOCARDIAL MOTION TRACKING WITH CINE-PHASE CONTRAST MAGNETIC-RESONANCE-IMAGING

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES. The accuracy of myocardial motion measurements, computed from cine-phase contrast (cine-PC) magnetic resonance (MR) velocity data, was compared with directly visualized motion of MR signal voids caused by implanted tantalum markers in anesthetized dogs. METHODS. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data were electrocardiogram-gated and divided into 16 phases per cardiac cycle, Myocardial trajectories as a function of time in the cardiac cycle were measured using both methods for four to seven markers in each of eight animals. RESULTS. The peak observed in-plane excursion was 4.0 +/- 2.1 mm, The average deviation between displacements derived from velocity data versus displacements visualized directly was 1.1 +/- 0.7 mm (27.5% of the peak displacement), The difference was less if three separate MR scans were used to measure each velocity component in the cine-PC method, This improvement is probably caused by improved temporal resolution. CONCLUSIONS. Cine-PC MRI offers a noninvasive method for accurate quantification of myocardial motion.