The Role of Phase Image in the Detection of Myocardial Dyskinesia by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).

Background: The assessment of cardiac wall motion abnormalities plays an important role in the evaluation of many cardiovascular diseases and the prediction of functional recovery. Most of the methods dedicated to identifying the location of wall motion abnormalities have been restricted to study hypokinesia while an accurate way to assess dyskinesia is still needed in Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging (CMRI).

Objective: The aim of this study is to propose a phase image based on the analytic signal able to assess the extent of the myocardial dyskinetic segments in Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging (CMRI).

Materials: 22 subjects were retrospectively enrolled in this study (age 46 ± 11): 15 presenting an aneurysm and 7 control subjects with normal wall motion. For each patient, three standard views (short axis view, 2 chamber and 4 chamber views) were acquired using 3 Tesla Siemens Avanto MRI scanner and a segmented True FISP sequence. All the cine MRI images were analyzed by two experimented observers who were blinded to the diagnostic results.

Results: The outcomes of this study show that using the proposed phase image in MRI clinical routine can increase the accuracy of the detection of myocardial dyskinetic segments from 77.23 % to 86.38 %, the sensitivity from 67.48 % to 78.86 % as well the specificity from 80.92 % to 89.23 % compared to the standard method based on cine MRI interpretation.

Conclusion: The phase image is a promising tool in CMRI for the assessment of dyskinetic segments and the degree of myocardial asynchronism.