Clinical usefulness of cine MRI for evaluation of left ventricular volume and diagnosis of heart and great vessel diseases

ECG-gated cine mode magnetic resonance (MR) imaging was performed in 20 patients with various heart deseases. Left ventricular volume (LVV) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) were calculated on MR images obtained in left ventricular vertical and horizontal long axis views. The findings were compared with those obtained from left ventriculography. There was a significant positive correlation between MR imaging and ventriculography for both LVV and LVEF (p<0.001). In Marfan syndrome after surgery for dissecting aneurysm of the aorta, MR imaging was capable of visualizing not only the whole aorta in a single plane but also enlargement of the aortic root. It also depicted asynergy and thinned wall of the infarcted myocardium for myocardial infarction; an enlarged left auricle, the thickened septum, and constricted outflow tract for idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis; shunt flow for ventricular septum defect; and an enlarged aortic root for aortitis syndrome. Using ventriculography as the standard, cine MR imaging was frequently false positive for the detection of mitral regurgitation. There was, however, good concordance between MR imaging and ventriculography in detecting aortic regurgitation. In addition, MR imaging was equivalent to color Doppler technique for detecting valvular regurgitation. (N.K.)