Accurate analysis of cardiac tagged MRI using combined HARP and optical flow tracking

In this work, we present a new method for analyzing cardiac tagged Magnetic Resonance Imaging (tMRI). The method combines two major tracking techniques: Harmonic Phase (HARP) and Optical Flow (OF). The results of the two techniques are fused together to accurately estimate the displacement of each myocardium point. The developed methods were tested using numerical MRI phantom at different SNR levels and deformation rates. The results show that the proposed method is more accurate and reliable than the HARP and the OF methods.