Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 24, 2026
Assessment of Cardiac Function and Myocardial Morphology Using Small Animal Look-locker Inversion Recovery SALLI MRI in Rats
Published on: July 19, 2013
Reappraising cardiac function with myocardial contraction fraction: normal values, disease detection, and
Hibba Kurdi1,2, George Thornton1,2, Hunain Shiwani1,2
1University College London, 62 Huntley Street, London WC1E 6DD, United Kingdom.
Insights
Myocardial contraction fraction (MCF) offers a more sensitive measure of cardiac function than ejection fraction (EF). This new metric aids in early disease detection, progression tracking, and provides superior prognostic ability for cardiovascular conditions.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Biomedical Engineering
- Medical Imaging Analysis
Background:
- Cardiac function assessment is crucial for cardiovascular disease management.
- Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is a standard but limited metric.
- Myocardial contraction fraction (MCF) is a novel, easily computed ratio of stroke volume to myocardial volume.
Purpose of the Study:
- To establish reference ranges for MCF across healthy individuals.
- To compare the diagnostic and prognostic capabilities of MCF against LVEF in various cardiac conditions.
- To evaluate MCF's ability to track disease severity and progression.
Main Methods:
- MCF and LVEF were assessed in four datasets including healthy controls and patients with chronic cardiac diseases.
- Sex-specific reference ranges for MCF were derived from 3,541 healthy UK Biobank participants.
- Discriminative power, disease tracking, and prognostic ability were evaluated across multiple cohorts using AI-validated image analysis.
Main Results:
- Sex-specific MCF reference ranges were established: [0.68-1.20] for males, [0.82-1.38] for females.
- MCF decreased significantly in pathological hypertrophy and dilatation, outperforming LVEF in detecting disease.
- MCF demonstrated superior prognostic ability compared to LVEF (HR=0.772 vs HR=0.816).
Conclusions:
- MCF reference ranges have been established, highlighting its potential as a superior metric for cardiac function assessment.
- MCF shows enhanced performance in early disease detection and tracking disease progression compared to LVEF.
- MCF provides significant prognostic utility, complementing existing measures of left ventricular function.
Aims:
Assessing cardiac function is critical for managing cardiovascular disease, guiding treatment, monitoring progression, and risk stratification. While left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (LVEF) is firmly established, it has limitations. Myocardial contraction fraction (MCF)-the ratio of stroke volume to myocardial volume, is simple to compute without additional analysis and offers a promising alternative to LVEF.
Methods And Results:
MCF was assessed across four datasets spanning healthy controls and chronic structural cardiac disease, with direct comparison to LVEF. Association between age, sex, and MCF were investigated in 3541 healthy subjects from the UK Biobank and sex-specific reference ranges derived. Several cohorts were recruited to investigate the discriminative power of MCF and LVEF between health and physiological adaption (n = 278 veteran athletes), pathological hypertrophy [hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, amyloid, Fabry, severe aortic stenosis (AS), and hypertension (HTN); n = 633], and dilatation [n = 103 dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM)]. Ability to track disease severity was assessed by looking at 41 558 subjects from the UK Biobank. Finally, prognostication was assessed on 1277 consecutive patients from an independent external dataset. All images were analysed using the same validated artificial intelligence algorithm. MCF varied with sex (mean MCF: 0.94 male; 1.1 female) but not age. Sex-specific reference ranges were established: [0.68-1.20] for male and [0.82-1.38] for female. MCF decreased in pathological disease (e.g. mean MCF: 0.72 HCM; 0.69 severe AS; 0.5 amyloid; 0.9 HTN) but there was no significant decrease in LVEF other than in amyloid (mean EF: 76% HCM; 64% severe AS; amyloid 56%; 65% HTN). Both MCF and ejection fraction (EF) decreased in DCM (EF 34%; MCF 0.58). MCF decreased with worsening HTN, whereas LVEF increased (P < 0.05). MCF had superior prognostic ability to LVEF (MCF vs. LVEF: HR = 0.772 vs. HR = 0.816; χ2 = 198 vs. χ2 = 151; P < 0.001).
Conclusion:
We established MCF reference ranges, showing superior performance for detecting early disease and tracking progression compared with LVEF. MCF offers enhanced prognostic utility, complementing established metrics of LV function.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
01:19Electrophysiology of Normal Cardiac Rhythm
01:24Biodiversity and Human Values
01:29Professional Values
The values that are the foundation of the nursing profession are altruism, autonomy, human dignity, and social justice.
First, altruism refers to the concern for the welfare and well-being of others without personal...
01:31Critical Values
01:15Muscle Contraction
01:10Muscle Contraction