Assessment of myocardial mechanics using magnetic resonance imaging

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides detailed anatomic and functional information about the in vivo myocardium in diastole or systole. The most important advantage of MRI for imaging the heart when compared with competing imaging modalities such as echocardiography and cine computed tomography is that the same region of myocardium may tracked as the heart deforms in diastole or systole rising the radiofrequency (RF) tissue-tagging technique. Thus, the significant contributions of in-plane relational or out-of-plane translational motion may be accounted for in MRI measurements of regional stress, strain and myocardial work. To utilize the advantages of MRI for assessing the mechanical state of the ventricles, the authors developed a software program written in the C programming language that runs on a Silicon Graphics (SGI) workstation. The software program facilitates detailed and accurate measurements of regional myocardial stress, strain and work.<>