Three-dimensional myocardial deformations: calculation with displacement field fitting to tagged MR images.
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.
O'Dell
W G
WG
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
Moore
C C
CC
Hunter
W C
WC
Zerhouni
E A
EA
McVeigh
E R
ER
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