Automated evaluation of left ventricular diastolic function using velocity-encoded Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Conventional and new parameters

Assessment of diastolic function with phase-contrast (PC) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is not used in clinical routine because of the lack of automated analyses. Thus, our aim was to develop a process to automatically analyze PC data. We studied PC data of 25 controls with a custom software, designed for automated segmentation of PC images and analysis of velocity and flow rate curves to derive diastolic parameters. Segmentation was successful on all subjects. Also, our conventional parameters were consistent with those previously presented in the literature and our new parameters highly correlated with those known to have a high prognosis value. Our process may provide a valuable addition to the established cardiac MRI tools.