Comparative study on ventricular function with two MR methods: phase contrast MR and stereological cine MR

Objective: To investigate the clinical application value of phase contrast MR imaging and stereological cine MR imaging in the assessment of ventricular function. Methods: Twelve healthy adult volunteers and 46 patients with cardiac diseases were studied with phase contrast MR imaging (PCMRI) and stereological cine MR imaging (SCMRI) respectively. After acquiring SCMRI of short axis images of the heart, left and right ventricular end diastolic volume (EDV), end systolic volume (ESV), stroke volume (SV), and ejection fraction (EF) were calculated by drawing the contour of endocardium and epicardium. Then the SVs were measured by using analysis software (ARGUS) and PCMRI, which located at the level above the ascending aorta and main pulmonary artery valves. The measurement results of two methods were compared. Result: (1) The SV values of right and left ventricle in healthy adult volunteers with PCMRI were correlated well with those obtained by SCMRI, and the correlation coefficients were 0.90 (left ventricle) and 0.87 (right ventricle), respectively. There was no significant difference for mean SV between PCMRI and SCMRI measurements (P>0.05). (2) In the patient group, the SV values of left ventricle using two methods had no significant difference, and the correlative coefficient was 0.85. However, the SV measurement values between healthy group and patient group at the level above ascending aorta were statistically different (P<0.05). Conclusion: Compared with SCMRI, PCMRI is an accurate and reproducible methods of measuring SV of ventricle, and the measurement results are correlated well each other. Using the analysis software, PCMRI has a higher clinical value for evaluating the ventricular function. (authors)