Systolic versus diastolic acquisition in myocardial perfusion MR imaging

Manish Motwani1, Timothy A Fairbairn, Abdulghani Larghat

  • 1Multidisciplinary Cardiovascular Research Centre & Leeds Institute of Genetics, Health and Therapeutics, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, England.

Radiology
|February 24, 2012
PubMed

Insights

Myocardial blood flow (MBF) and myocardial perfusion reserve (MPR) are higher during diastole than systole. Both phases showed similar diagnostic accuracy for detecting coronary artery disease (CAD) using magnetic resonance imaging.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiovascular Imaging
  • Radiology
  • Cardiac MRI

Background:

  • Assessing myocardial blood flow (MBF) is crucial for diagnosing coronary artery disease (CAD).
  • Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging offers a non-invasive method to evaluate MBF and myocardial perfusion reserve (MPR).
  • The influence of systolic versus diastolic phases on MBF and MPR accuracy in CAD detection requires clarification.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare myocardial blood flow (MBF) measurements during systole and diastole.
  • To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of both systolic and diastolic phases for detecting coronary artery disease (CAD).
  • To assess myocardial perfusion reserve (MPR) in systole versus diastole.

Main Methods:

  • Forty patients with suspected CAD underwent stress-rest perfusion MR imaging at 1.5 T.
  • Images were acquired simultaneously at end-systole and mid-diastole.
  • MBF and MPR were calculated for myocardial segments, and diagnostic accuracy was determined using ROC analysis.

Main Results:

  • Stress MBF and MPR were significantly greater in diastole compared to systole across all myocardial segments (normal, remote, and stenosis-dependent).
  • Resting MBF showed no significant difference between systolic and diastolic phases.
  • The diagnostic accuracy for CAD detection was similar for both diastolic and systolic phases (AUC 0.79 vs. 0.82, P = .30).

Conclusions:

  • Diastolic phase measurements of stress MBF and MPR are higher than systolic measurements in patients with and without CAD.
  • Both systolic and diastolic phases demonstrate comparable diagnostic accuracy for identifying CAD via MR perfusion imaging.
  • Findings may inform other dynamic perfusion imaging techniques like CT and echocardiography.
Abstract