Novel method for atrioventricular motion assessment from three-dimensional cine magnetic resonance imaging

This study was carried out to (i) track the motion of six atrioventricular junction (AVJ) sites from the two-, three-, and four-chamber cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) views in 27 healthy subjects, (ii) extract four clinically most useful AVJ velocities (i.e., myocardial systolic velocities Sm1 and Sm2, early diastolic velocity Em, and late diastolic velocity Am) for each AVJ site, and (iii) assess the relationship between CMR measurements to age and gender, and set up preliminary normal reference ranges for CMR derived AVJ velocites stratified by age and gender. The data obtained by CMR based method demonstrated that men had significant higher Sm1 (10.5±3.7 cm/s vs. 7.8±2.5 cm/s, P<;0.05) and Am (10.5±4.5 cm/s vs. 7.7±2.6 cm/s, P<;0.05), but comparable Sm2 (6.6±2.2 cm/s vs. 6.9±1.6 cm/s, P>0.05) and Em (11.2±3.3 cm/s vs. 11.5±4.3 cm/s, P>0.05) than women. There was no significant correlation between Sm1, Sm2 and age, while Em and Am strongly or moderately correlated with age. The lateral, posterolateral and posterior AVJ velocities were significant higher than the ones in septal, anteroseptal and anterior locations. Atrioventricular motion and derived velocities are independent of imaging reference frames, and thereby computationally light-weight. They can be derived by post-processing three-dimensional routine CMR images without additional image acquisition. This shall potentially extend routine CMR's capability for left ventricular (LV) systolic and diastolic function assessment.