Quantification of regional myocardial wall motion by cardiovascular magnetic resonance

Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is a versatile tool that also allows comprehensive and accurate measurement of both global and regional myocardial contraction. Quantification of regional wall motion parameters, such as strain, strain rate, twist and torsion, has been shown to be more sensitive to early-stage functional alterations. Since the invention of CMR tagging by magnetization saturation in 1988, several CMR techniques have been developed to enable the measurement of regional myocardial wall motion, including myocardial tissue tagging, phase contrast mapping, displacement encoding with stimulated echoes (DENSE), and strain encoded (SENC) imaging. These techniques have been developed with their own advantages and limitations. In this review, two widely used and closely related CMR techniques, i.e., tissue tagging and DENSE, will be discussed from the perspective of pulse sequence development and image-processing techniques. The clinical and preclinical applications of tissue tagging and DENSE in assessing wall motion mechanics in both normal and diseased hearts, including coronary artery diseases, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, aortic stenosis, and Duchenne muscular dystrophies, will be discussed.