title: Three-dimensional myocardial deformations: calculation with displacement field fitting to tagged MR images.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To reconstruct three-dimensional (3D) myocardial deformations from orthogonal sets of parallel-tagged magnetic resonance (MR) images.
  
  
  METHODS
  Displacement information in the direction normal to the undeformed tag planes was obtained at points along tag lines. Three independent sets of one-dimensional displacement data were used to fit an analytical series expression to describe 3D displacement as a function of deformed position. The technique was demonstrated with computer-generated models of the deformed left ventricle with data from healthy human volunteers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Model deformations were reconstructed with a 3D tracking error of less than 0.3 mm. Error between estimated and observed one-dimensional displacements along the tags in 10 human subjects was 0.00 mm +/- 0.36 (mean +/- standard deviation). Robustness to noise in the tag displacement data was demonstrated by using a Monte Carlo simulation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The combination of rapidly acquired parallel-tagged MR images and field-fitting analysis is a valuable tool in cardiac mechanics research and in the clinical assessment of cardiac mechanical function.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
authors.forename: W G
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: O'Dell
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.forename: W C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Hunter
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Zerhouni
authors.forename: E R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: McVeigh
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D006321:Heart / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D009200:Myocardial Contraction