Cine MRI-Derived Radiomics Features of the Cardiac Blood Pool: Periodicity, Specificity, and Reproducibility

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Imaging
• Radiomics
• Medical Physics

Background:

• Radiomics features of the left ventricular wall are established for cardiac disease assessment.
• Radiomics of the cardiac blood pool remain relatively unexplored.
• This study investigates the potential of cardiac blood pool radiomics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if cine MRI-derived radiomics features of the cardiac blood pool correlate with cardiac function and motion.
• To explore novel quantitative imaging biomarkers for cardiovascular assessment.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 26 healthy volunteers using 1.5T cine MRI (balanced steady-state free precession).
• Extraction of 107 radiomics features from the blood pool of all four cardiac chambers (LV, RV, LA, RA) across 25 cardiac phases.
• Assessment of intraobserver, interobserver, and scan-rescan reproducibility of radiomics features.

Main Results:

• Most blood pool radiomics features exhibited periodic variation throughout the cardiac cycle.
• Peak radiomics features showed significant correlations (r: 0.4-0.87) with traditional cardiac function indices (volumes, ejection fraction, longitudinal strain).
• High reproducibility was observed: 87% intraobserver, 80% interobserver, and 68% scan-rescan agreement.

Conclusions:

• Cine MRI-derived radiomics features of the cardiac blood pool are significantly associated with cardiac function and motion.
• These radiomics features demonstrate potential as novel quantitative imaging biomarkers for cardiovascular medicine.
• Further research could validate these findings for clinical application.