Left ventricular motion reconstruction from planar tagged MR images:: a comparison

Through recent development of MR techniques, it is now possible to assess regional myocardial wall function in a non-invasive way. Using MR tagging, space is marked with planes which deform with the tissue, providing markers for tracking the local motion of the myocardium. Numerous methods to reconstruct the three-dimensional displacement field have been developed. The aim of this article is to provide a framework to quantitatively compare the performance of four methods the authors have developed. Five sets of experiments are described, and their results are reported. Instructions are also provided to perform similar tests on any method using the same data. The experiments show that some characteristic properties of the methods, such as sensitivity to noise or spatial resolution, can be quantitatively classified. Cross-comparison of performances show what range values for these properties can be considered acceptable.