Kinematic analysis of left ventricular deformation in myocardial infarction using magnetic resonance cardiac tagging

The Magnetic Resonance (MR) tagging technique provides detailed information about 2D motion in the plane of observation. Interpretation of this information as a reflection of the 3D motion of the entire cardiac wall is a major problem. In finite element models of the mechanics of the infarcted heart, an infarcted region causes motional asymmetry, extending far beyond the infarct boundary. Here we present a method to quantify such asymmetry in amplitude and orientation. For this purpose images of a short-axis cross-section of the ejecting left ventricle were acquired from 9 healthy volunteers and 5 patients with myocardial infarction. MR-tags were applied in a 5 mm grid at end-diastole. The tags were tracked by video-image analysis. Tag motion was fitted to a kinematic model of cardiac motion. For the volunteers and the patients the center of the cavity displaced by about the same amount (p = 0.11) during the ejection phase: 3.8 +/- 1.4 and 3.0 +/- 0.9 mm (mean +/- sd), respectively. Cross-sectional rotation and the decrease in cross-sectional area of the cavity were both greater in the volunteers than in the patients: 6.4 +/- 1.5 vs. 3.0 +/- 0.8 degrees (p < 0.001), and 945 +/- 71 vs. 700 +/- 176 mm2 (p = 0.02), respectively. In the patients, asymmetry of wall motion, as expressed by a sine wave dependency of contraction around the circumference, was significantly enlarged (p = 0.02). The proposed method of kinematic analysis can be used to assess cardiac deformation in humans. We expect that by analyzing images of more cross-sections simultaneously, the 3D location and the degree of infarction can be assessed efficiently.