Validation by the HARP method of a new algorithm to assess left ventricular deformation on standard cine-MRI

We present an original algorithm to assess the deformations of the left ventricle on standard cardiac cine-MRI rather than tagged-MRI. Our results are validated by comparison with results derived from tagged image sequences that are analysed by the harmonic phase MRI (HARP MRI) method. First, a segmentation process, based on a level set method is applied on a 2D+t dataset of MR images to detect endocardial contours. Second, the successive segmented contours are matched using a rigid registration. We then apply a morphing process implemented with a level set approach to track the position of points belonging to the endocardial contours. Finally, local measurements of myocardial deformations are derived from the previously determined matched contours