Systolic-to-diastolic myocardial volume ratio as a novel imaging marker of cardiomyopathy.

Background: In patients with normal left ventricular ejection fraction, it may be difficult to distinguish between the normal and diseased heart. Novel assessments of ventricular function, such as extracellular volume imaging, myocardial perfusion imaging and myocardial contraction fraction are emerging to better assess disease burden in these cases. This study endeavored to determine whether the ratio of myocardial volume in systole to myocardial volume in diastole (MVs/MVd), differs between normal hearts and those with disease states characterized by normal ejection fraction.