title: Assessment of regional left ventricular function: accuracy and reproducibility of positioning standard short-axis sections in cardiac MR imaging.
abstract: The assessment of regional left ventricular (LV) function with cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) cine techniques requires a standardized section positioning. A simple selective short-axis method for selective positioning of three short-axis sections (basal, midcavity, apical) was tested for its accuracy, compared with accepted criteria, in 21 volunteers (mean age, 32 years +/- 11) and in 23 patients with myocardial infarction (mean age, 56 years +/- 12). Reproducibility of section positioning and of regional LV parameters was tested in the volunteers. Among the six accuracy criteria defined for standard sections, the selective short-axis approach had an average accuracy of 90.9% in volunteers and 87.7% in patients, compared with 92.1% and 90.6%, respectively, for a multisection approach covering the whole LV. There was very good reproducibility of the selected intersection gap (r = 0.89, P < .001) and of measured midcavity end-diastolic diameters in vertical (r = 0.83, P < .001) and horizontal (r = 0.85, P < .001) long-axis orientations. The proposed method produces standardized short-axis section positions that meet the recommendations for cardiac imaging. The study was approved by the local ethics committee, and all subjects gave written informed consent.
authors.affiliation: British Heart Foundation Cardiac MRI Unit, Leeds General Infirmary, Leeds, England. messroghli@fvk-berlin.de
authors.forename: Daniel R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Messroghli
authors.forename: Gavin J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Bainbridge
authors.forename: Khaled
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Alfakih
authors.forename: Tim R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Plein
authors.forename: John P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Ridgway
authors.forename: Mohan U
authors.initials: MU
authors.lastname: Sivananthan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left