Robust assessment of the transmural extent of myocardial infarction in late gadolinium-enhanced MRI studies using appropriate angular and circumferential subdivision of the myocardium

A computer-assisted method is proposed to estimate transmural extent of myocardial infarction. In 40 patients with chronic myocardial infarction and 3 control subjects, late gadolinium enhancement images were acquired with magnetic resonance imaging. Segmental infarct transmural extent was visually assessed by two experts on a 5-point scale. A fuzzy c-means algorithm was applied on both the cavity and myocardium to estimate an enhancement index for 12 sub-regions of each segment. A threshold was defined on a training database (n=29) to establish the transmurality extent of each sub-segment and was applied to the validation database (n=14). Inter-observer reproducibility reached an absolute agreement (Aa) of 85% and a kappa value (κ) of 0.83 when considering the whole training database; Aa decreased to 62% and κ to 0.68 when excluding homogeneous segments. On the validation database, segments were subdivided into three angular sub-segments. Then, inter-observer visual reproducibility reached Aa of 93% and κ of 0.92. Moreover, the absolute comparison of each expert with the computer-assisted method yielded Aa higher than 88% and κ higher than 0.86. The computer-assisted method quantifies infarct transmurality without defining remote and infarcted regions, and the transmural extent is accurately characterized when dividing each segment into three angular sub-segments. (orig.)