Improved correction of spatial inhomogeneities of surface coils in quantitative analysis of first-pass myocardial perfusion imaging.

Purpose: To test whether image normalization using either a separate 3D proton-density (PD)-weighted prescan, or 2D PD-weighted images prior to the perfusion series, improves correction of differences in spatial sensitivity induced by radiofrequency (RF) surface receiver coils. Originally, this correction was applied using the baseline signal in the myocardium before arrival of the contrast agent. This is of importance, as quantitative analysis of magnetic resonance (MR) myocardial perfusion using deconvolution with the arterial input assumes equal signal sensitivity over the heart.

Loss of opposite left ventricular basal and apical rotation predicts acute response to cardiac resynchronization therapy and is associated with long-term reversed remodeling.

Background: Normal left ventricular (LV) torsion is caused by opposite basal and apical rotation. Opposite rotation can be lost in heart failure, but might be restored by pacing; therefore, the predictive value of the loss of opposite base-apex rotation in heart failure patients for the response to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) was studied.

Methods And Results: In 34 CRT candidates and 12 controls, basal and apical LV rotations were calculated using magnetic resonance image tagging.

Comparison of 2D and 3D calculation of left ventricular torsion as circumferential-longitudinal shear angle using cardiovascular magnetic resonance tagging.

Purpose: To compare left ventricular (LV) torsion represented as the circumferential-longitudinal (CL) shear angle between 2D and 3D quantification, using cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR).

Methods: CMR tagging was performed in six healthy volunteers. From this, LV torsion was calculated using a 2D and a 3D method.

Propagation of onset and peak time of myocardial shortening in time of myocardial shortening in ischemic versus nonischemic cardiomyopathy: assessment by magnetic resonance imaging myocardial tagging.

Objectives: We aimed to study the relation between onset and peak time of circumferential shortening and the direction of propagation of these parameters in both ischemic and nonischemic patients.

Background: Peak time is often used to select patients for cardiac resynchronization therapy, whereas pacing influences only the onset times directly. Furthermore, it is unclear whether there is a consistent direction of propagation delay and whether this depends on the etiology.

Steady-state free precession with myocardial tagging: CSPAMM in a single breathhold.

A method is presented that combines steady-state free precession (SSFP) cine imaging with myocardial tagging. Before the tagging preparation at each ECG-R wave, the steady-state magnetization is stored as longitudinal magnetization by an alpha/2 flip-back pulse. Imaging is continued immediately after tagging preparation, using linearly increasing startup angles (LISA) with a rampup over 10 pulses.

Three-dimensional myocardial strains at end-systole and during diastole in the left ventricle of normal humans.

This paper presents the three-dimensional strains in the normal human left ventricle (LV) at end-systole and during diastole. Magnetic resonance tissue tagging was used to measure strain in the left-ventricular heart wall in 10 healthy volunteers aged between 28 and 61 years. The three-dimensional motion was calculated from the displacement of marker points in short- and long-axis cine images, with a time resolution of 30 msec.