Assessment of liver fibrosis using fast strain-encoded MRI driven by inherent cardiac motion.

Purpose: An external driver-free MRI method for assessment of liver fibrosis offers a promising noninvasive tool for diagnosis and monitoring of liver disease. Lately, the heart's intrinsic motion and MR tagging have been utilized for the quantification of liver strain. However, MR tagging requires multiple breath-hold acquisitions and substantial postprocessing.

Inter-study reproducibility of cardiovascular magnetic resonance tagging.

Background: The aim of this study is to determine the test-retest reliability of the measurement of regional myocardial function by cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) tagging using spatial modulation of magnetization.

Methods: Twenty-five participants underwent CMR tagging twice over 12 ± 7 days. To assess the role of slice orientation on strain measurement, two healthy volunteers had a first exam, followed by image acquisition repeated with slices rotated ±15 degrees out of true short axis, followed by a second exam in the true short axis plane.

Regional and global biventricular function in pulmonary arterial hypertension: a cardiac MR imaging study.

Purpose: To determine whether chronic pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP) elevation affects regional biventricular function and whether regional myocardial function may be reduced in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) patients with preserved global right ventricular (RV) function.

Materials And Methods: After informed consent, 35 PAH patients were evaluated with right heart catheterization and cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and compared with 13 healthy control subjects. Biventricular segmental, section, and mean ventricular peak systolic longitudinal strain (E(LL)), as well as left ventricular (LV) circumferential and RV tangential strains were compared between PAH patients and control subjects and correlated with global function and catheterization of the right heart indexes.

Finding the optimal compression level for strain-encoded (SENC) breast MRI; simulations and phantom experiments.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women and the second highest cause of cancer-related death. Diagnostic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is recommended to screen high-risk patients. Strain-Encoded (SENC) can improve MRI's specificity by detecting and differentiating masses according to their stiffness.

Age-related changes in aortic arch geometry: relationship with proximal aortic function and left ventricular mass and remodeling.

Objectives: We sought to define age-related geometric changes of the aortic arch and determine their relationship to central aortic stiffness and left ventricular (LV) remodeling.

Background: The proximal aorta has been shown to thicken, enlarge in diameter, and lengthen with aging in humans. However, no systematic study has described age-related longitudinal and transversal remodeling of the aortic arch and their relationship with LV mass and remodeling.

Improved hardware for higher spatial resolution strain-encoded (SENC) breast MRI for strain measurements.

Rationale And Objectives: Early detection of breast lesions using mammography has resulted in lower mortality rates. However, some breast lesions are mammography occult, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is recommended, but it has lower specificity. It is possible to achieve higher specificity by using strain-encoded (SENC) MRI and/or magnetic resonance elastography.