Cine MR imaging in mitral regurgitation: comparison with color Doppler flow imaging

Cine MR imaging is a new technique that combines short repetition times, limited flip angles, gradient-refocused echoes, and cardiac gating. This procedure was performed in 20 patients in whom mitral regurgitation was shown on left ventriculography, and the results were compared with those of color Doppler flow mapping. In all cases, mitral regurgitation on cine MR imaging was depicted as an area of decreased signal intensity within the left atrium. The extent and severity of the regurgitant jet as seen by the two techniques were classified visually as 4+ (severe), 3+ (moderate), 2+ (mild), and 1+ (minimal). The results of the two methods were the same in 14 (70%) of the 20 patients. In five patients the results differed by one grade and in one patient by two grades. In addition, the maximal intrusion distance and area of the regurgitant jet divided by the area of the left atrium as determined by the two methods were compared. The correlation coefficients between the two methods in regard to the length and area of mitral regurgitation were .74 and .71, respectively. These data suggest that the accuracy of cine MR imaging in assessing the severity of mitral regurgitation is comparable to that of color Doppler flow imaging.