Heart deformation analysis for automated quantification of cardiac function and regional myocardial motion patterns: A proof of concept study in patients with cardiomyopathy and healthy subjects

• Heart deformation analysis (HDA) can quantify global and regional cardiac function.
• HDA works based on cine CMR images without the needs of operator interaction.
• HDA-derived cardiac motion indices are reproducible.

ObjectiveTo test the performance of HDA in characterizing left ventricular (LV) function and regional myocardial motion patterns in the context of cardiomyopathy based on cine cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR).Materials and methodsFollowing the approval of the institutional review board (IRB), standard cine images of 45 subjects, including 15 healthy volunteers, 15 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and 15 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) were retrospectively analyzed using HDA. The variations of LV ejection fraction (LVEF), LV mass (LVM), and regional myocardial motion indices, including radial (Drr), circumferential (Dcc) displacement, radial (Vrr) and circumferential (Vcc) velocity, radial (Err), circumferential (Ecc) and shear (Ess) strain and radial (SRr) and circumferential (SRc) strain rate, were calculated and compared among subject groups. Inter-study reproducibility of HDA-derived myocardial motion indices were tested on 15 volunteers by using intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) and coefficient of variation (CoV).ResultsHDA identified significant differences in cardiac function and motion indices between subject groups. DCM patients had significantly lower LVEF (33.5 ± 9.65%), LVM (105.88 ± 21.93 g), peak Drr (0.29 ± 0.11 cm), Vrr-sys (2.14 ± 0.72 cm/s), Err (0.17 ± 0.08), Ecc (−0.08 ± 0.03), SRr-sys (0.91 ± 0.44s−1) and SRc-sys (−0.64 ± 0.27s−1) compared to the other two groups. HCM patients demonstrated increased LVM (171.69 ± 34.19) and lower peak Vcc-dia (0.78 ± 0.30 cm/s) than other subjects. Good inter-study reproducibility was found for all HDA-derived myocardial indices in healthy volunteers (ICC = 0.664–0.942, CoV = 15.1%–37.1%).ConclusionWithout the need for operator interaction, HDA is a reproducible method for the automated characterization of global and regional LV function in the context of cardiomyopathy.