Assessment of Left Ventricular Function with Single Breath-Hold Magnetic Resonance Cine Imaging in Patients with Arrhythmia

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To evaluate quantification results of single breath-hold (SBH) magnetic resonance (MR) cine imaging compared to results of conventional multiple breath-hold (MBH) technique for left ventricular (LV) function in patients with cardiac arrhythmia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: MR images of patients with arrhythmia who underwent MBH and SBH cine imaging at the same time on a 1.5T MR scanner were retrospectively reviewed. Both SBH and MBH cine imaging were performed with balanced steady state free precession. SBH scans were acquired using temporal parallel acquisition technique (TPAT). Fifty patients (65.4 ± 12.3 years, 72% men) were included. End-diastolic volume (EDV), end-systolic volume (ESV), stroke volume (SV), ejection fraction (EF), myocardial mass, and LV regional wall motion were evaluated. RESULTS: EF, myocardial mass, and regional wall motion were not significantly different between SBH and MBH acquisition techniques (all P-values > 0.05). EDV, ESV, and SV were significant difference between the two techniques. These parameters for SBH cine imaging with TPAT tended to lower than those in MBH. EF and myocardial mass of SBH cine imaging with TPAT showed good correlation with values of MBH cine imaging in Passing-Bablok regression charts and Bland-Altman plots. However, SBH imaging required significantly shorter acquisition time than MBH cine imaging (15 ± 7 sec vs. 293 ± 104 sec, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: SBH cine imaging with TPAT permits shorter acquisition time with assessment results of global and regional LV function comparable to those with MBH cine imaging in patients with arrhythmia.