[Reference Values for Left Ventricular Myocardial Strains Measured by Feature-tracking Magnetic Resonance Imaging in...

To establish reference values for left ventricular (LV) myocardial strains in a cohort of healthy Chinese volunteers with feature tracking cardiac magnetic resonance imaging.

A total of 60 healthy volunteers were recruited, receiving a cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) examination at 3.0T scanner (Tim Trio, Magnetum, Siemens, Germany). A new feature tracking CMR software (Trufisp-strain, Siemens) was used to analyze left ventricular myocardial strain parameters, including radial, circumferential, longitudinal strain, systolic strain rate, and early diastolic strain rate.

The image quality was sufficient to perform strain analysis.The reference values of global strain, global strain rate and segmental strains were obtained. A good inter- and intra-observer agreement was achieved in global strain analysis (except circumferential straininter-observer in apical level), with (37.7±9.6)% for LV global mean radial strain, (-18.4±3.3)% for circumferential strain and (-15.2±2.3%) for longitudinal strain, respectively.Age was positively correlated with global mean radial strain ( r=0.416, P<0.001) and negatively correlated with early diastolic strain rate (circumferential or longitudinal) and circumferential strain( r=-0.436, P<0.001; r=-0.326, P=0.011; r=-0.273, P=0.035, respectively). Women showed higher circumferential and longituinal strain values and lower systolic circumferential strain rate than men. The strain parameters were correlated with left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) ( P<0.05).

FT-CMR (Trufisp-strain software) is a fast, convenient and highly reproducible method for analyzing left ventricular myocardial strains, which can sensitively detect gender and age differences. The reference values of LV myocardial strains can support further studies in the future.