Accurate two-dimensional cardiac strain calculation using adaptive windowed Fourier transform and Gabor wavelet...

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Imaging
• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Physics

Background:

• Cardiac strain analysis from tagged MR images is crucial for identifying heart-wall motion abnormalities.
• Efficient and accurate methods for cardiac strain calculation are needed for clinical applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and evaluate an adaptive windowed harmonic phase (AWHARP) method for accurate and efficient cardiac strain calculation.
• To compare AWHARP with the existing harmonic phase (HARP) method.

Main Methods:

• AWHARP combines adaptive windowed Fourier transform (AWFT) and 2D Gabor wavelet transform (2D-GWT) for enhanced phase extraction.
• Multi-resolution analysis is employed for precise phase extraction.
• The method was validated using simulated and patient-derived tagged MR images (SPAMM and CSPAMM).

Main Results:

• AWHARP demonstrated higher accuracy in phase and strain calculations compared to HARP, particularly with significant tag deformation.
• Accuracy improvements reached up to 3.2 strain (E1).
• Reduced end-systolic cardiac strain was observed in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM).

Conclusions:

• The AWHARP method provides an accurate and efficient approach for cardiac strain estimation from MR images.
• This algorithm aids in the detection of left ventricle dysfunctions and myocardial diseases through precise cardiac strain analysis.