Publications
57 results found
Alemany I, Rose JN, Ferreira PF, et al., 2023, Realistic numerical simulations of diffusion tensor cardiovascular magnetic resonance: The effects of perfusion and membrane permeability., Magn Reson Med, Vol: 90, Pages: 1641-1656
PURPOSE: To study the sensitivity of diffusion tensor cardiovascular magnetic resonance (DT-CMR) to microvascular perfusion and changes in cell permeability. METHODS: Monte Carlo (MC) random walk simulations in the myocardium have been performed to simulate self-diffusion of water molecules in histology-based media with varying extracellular volume fraction (ECV) and permeable membranes. The effect of microvascular perfusion on simulations of the DT-CMR signal has been incorporated by adding the contribution of particles traveling through an anisotropic capillary network to the diffusion signal. The simulations have been performed considering three pulse sequences with clinical gradient strengths: monopolar stimulated echo acquisition mode (STEAM), monopolar pulsed-gradient spin echo (PGSE), and second-order motion-compensated spin echo (MCSE). RESULTS: Reducing ECV intensifies the diffusion restriction and incorporating membrane permeability reduces the anisotropy of the diffusion tensor. Widening the intercapillary velocity distribution results in increased measured diffusion along the cardiomyocytes long axis when the capillary networks are anisotropic. Perfusion amplifies the mean diffusivity for STEAM while the opposite is observed for short diffusion encoding time sequences (PGSE and MCSE). CONCLUSION: The effect of perfusion on the measured diffusion tensor is reduced using an increased reference b-value. Our results pave the way for characterization of the response of DT-CMR to microstructural changes underlying cardiac pathology and highlight the higher sensitivity of STEAM to permeability and microvascular circulation due to its longer diffusion encoding time.
Mao H, Garza-Villarreal EA, Moy L, et al., 2023, Ethical Considerations for MRI Research in Human Subjects in the Era of Precision Medicine., J Magn Reson Imaging
Zheng Y, Chan WX, Nielles-Vallespin S, et al., 2023, Effects of myocardial sheetlet sliding on left ventricular function., Biomech Model Mechanobiol, Vol: 22, Pages: 1313-1332
Left ventricle myocardium has a complex micro-architecture, which was revealed to consist of myocyte bundles arranged in a series of laminar sheetlets. Recent imaging studies demonstrated that these sheetlets re-orientated and likely slided over each other during the deformations between systole and diastole, and that sheetlet dynamics were altered during cardiomyopathy. However, the biomechanical effect of sheetlet sliding is not well-understood, which is the focus here. We conducted finite element simulations of the left ventricle (LV) coupled with a windkessel lumped parameter model to study sheetlet sliding, based on cardiac MRI of a healthy human subject, and modifications to account for hypertrophic and dilated geometric changes during cardiomyopathy remodeling. We modeled sheetlet sliding as a reduced shear stiffness in the sheet-normal direction and observed that (1) the diastolic sheetlet orientations must depart from alignment with the LV wall plane in order for sheetlet sliding to have an effect on cardiac function, that (2) sheetlet sliding modestly aided cardiac function of the healthy and dilated hearts, in terms of ejection fraction, stroke volume, and systolic pressure generation, but its effects were amplified during hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and diminished during dilated cardiomyopathy due to both sheetlet angle configuration and geometry, and that (3) where sheetlet sliding aided cardiac function, it increased tissue stresses, particularly in the myofibre direction. We speculate that sheetlet sliding is a tissue architectural adaptation to allow easier deformations of the LV walls so that LV wall stiffness will not hinder function, and to provide a balance between function and tissue stresses. A limitation here is that sheetlet sliding is modeled as a simple reduction in shear stiffness, without consideration of micro-scale sheetlet mechanics and dynamics.
Wang Y, Sun C, Ghadimi S, et al., 2023, StrainNet: Improved Myocardial Strain Analysis of Cine MRI by Deep Learning from DENSE., Radiol Cardiothorac Imaging, Vol: 5
PURPOSE: To develop a three-dimensional (two dimensions + time) convolutional neural network trained with displacement encoding with stimulated echoes (DENSE) data for displacement and strain analysis of cine MRI. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this retrospective multicenter study, a deep learning model (StrainNet) was developed to predict intramyocardial displacement from contour motion. Patients with various heart diseases and healthy controls underwent cardiac MRI examinations with DENSE between August 2008 and January 2022. Network training inputs were a time series of myocardial contours from DENSE magnitude images, and ground truth data were DENSE displacement measurements. Model performance was evaluated using pixelwise end-point error (EPE). For testing, StrainNet was applied to contour motion from cine MRI. Global and segmental circumferential strain (Ecc) derived from commercial feature tracking (FT), StrainNet, and DENSE (reference) were compared using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs), Pearson correlations, Bland-Altman analyses, paired t tests, and linear mixed-effects models. RESULTS: The study included 161 patients (110 men; mean age, 61 years ± 14 [SD]), 99 healthy adults (44 men; mean age, 35 years ± 15), and 45 healthy children and adolescents (21 males; mean age, 12 years ± 3). StrainNet showed good agreement with DENSE for intramyocardial displacement, with an average EPE of 0.75 mm ± 0.35. The ICCs between StrainNet and DENSE and FT and DENSE were 0.87 and 0.72, respectively, for global Ecc and 0.75 and 0.48, respectively, for segmental Ecc. Bland-Altman analysis showed that StrainNet had better agreement than FT with DENSE for global and segmental Ecc. CONCLUSION: StrainNet outperformed FT for global and segmental Ecc analysis of cine MRI.Keywords: Image Postprocessing, MR Imaging, Cardiac, Heart, Pediatrics, Technical Aspects, Technology Assessment, Strain, Deep Learning, DENSE Supplemental material is available
Moulin K, Stoeck CT, Axel L, et al., 2023, In Vivo Cardiac Diffusion Imaging Without Motion-Compensation Leads to Unreasonably High Diffusivity., J Magn Reson Imaging
Barbaroux H, Kunze KP, Neji R, et al., 2023, Automated segmentation of long and short axis DENSE cardiovascular magnetic resonance for myocardial strain analysis using spatio-temporal convolutional neural networks, Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance, Vol: 25, Pages: 1-17, ISSN: 1097-6647
BACKGROUND: Cine Displacement Encoding with Stimulated Echoes (DENSE) facilitates the quantification of myocardial deformation, by encoding tissue displacements in the cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) image phase, from which myocardial strain can be estimated with high accuracy and reproducibility. Current methods for analyzing DENSE images still heavily rely on user input, making this process time-consuming and subject to inter-observer variability. The present study sought to develop a spatio-temporal deep learning model for segmentation of the left-ventricular (LV) myocardium, as spatial networks often fail due to contrast-related properties of DENSE images. METHODS: 2D + time nnU-Net-based models have been trained to segment the LV myocardium from DENSE magnitude data in short- and long-axis images. A dataset of 360 short-axis and 124 long-axis slices was used to train the networks, from a combination of healthy subjects and patients with various conditions (hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathy, myocardial infarction, myocarditis). Segmentation performance was evaluated using ground-truth manual labels, and a strain analysis using conventional methods was performed to assess strain agreement with manual segmentation. Additional validation was performed using an externally acquired dataset to compare the inter- and intra-scanner reproducibility with respect to conventional methods. RESULTS: Spatio-temporal models gave consistent segmentation performance throughout the cine sequence, while 2D architectures often failed to segment end-diastolic frames due to the limited blood-to-myocardium contrast. Our models achieved a DICE score of 0.83 ± 0.05 and a Hausdorff distance of 4.0 ± 1.1 mm for short-axis segmentation, and 0.82 ± 0.03 and 7.9 ± 3.9 mm respectively for long-axis segmentations. Strain measurements obtained from automatically estimated myo
Alemany I, Ferreira PF, Nielles-Vallespin S, et al., 2023, The Effect of Temporal Variations in Myocardial Perfusion on Diffusion Tensor Measurements, Functional Imaging and Modeling of the Heart, Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland, Pages: 54-63, ISBN: 9783031353017
Alemany Juvanteny I, Rose J, Garnier-Brun J, et al., 2022, Random walk diffusion simulations in semi-permeable layered media with varying diffusivity, Scientific Reports, Vol: 12, ISSN: 2045-2322
In this paper we present random walk based solutions to diffusion in semi-permeable layered media with varying diffusivity.We propose a novel transit model for solving the interaction of random walkers with a membrane. This hybrid model isbased on treating the membrane permeability and the step change in diffusion coefficient as two interactions separated byan infinitesimally small layer. By conducting an extensive analytical flux analysis, the performance of our hybrid model iscompared with a commonly used membrane transit model (reference model). Numerical simulations demonstrate the limitationsof the reference model in dealing with step changes in diffusivity and show the capability of the hybrid model to overcomethis limitation and to offer substantial gains in computational efficiency. The suitability of both random walk transit modelsfor the application to simulations of diffusion tensor cardiovascular magnetic resonance (DT-CMR) imaging is assessed in ahistology-based domain relevant to DT-CMR. In order to demonstrate the usefulness of the new hybrid model for other possibleapplications, we also consider a larger range of permeabilities beyond those commonly found in biological tissues.
Teh I, Romero W, Boyle J, et al., 2022, Validation of cardiac diffusion tensor imaging sequences: A multi-centre test-retest phantom study, NMR in Biomedicine, Vol: 35, Pages: 1-18, ISSN: 0952-3480
INTRODUCTION: Cardiac diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is an emerging technique for the in vivo characterisation of myocardial microstructure, and there is a growing need for its validation and standardisation. We sought to establish accuracy, precision, repeatability and reproducibility of state-of-the-art pulse sequences for cardiac DTI between ten centres internationally. METHODS: Phantoms comprising 0-20% polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) were scanned with DTI using a product pulsed gradient spin echo (PGSE; N=10 sites) sequence, and a custom motion-compensated spin echo (SE; N=5) or stimulated echo (STEAM; N=5) sequence suitable for cardiac DTI in vivo. A second identical scan was performed 1-9 days post, and the data analysed centrally. RESULTS: The average mean diffusivities (MD) in 0% PVP were (1.124, 1.130, 1.113) × 10-3 mm2 /s for PGSE, SE and STEAM respectively, and accurate to within 1.5% of reference data from literature. The coefficients of variation in MD across sites were 2.6%, 3.1%, 2.1% for PGSE, SE and STEAM, and were similar to previous studies using only PGSE. Reproducibility in MD was excellent, with mean differences in PGSE, SE and STEAM of (0.3 ± 2.3, 0.24 ± 0.95, 0.52 ± 0.58) × 10-5 mm2 /s (mean ± 1.96SD). CONCLUSION: We show that custom sequences for cardiac DTI provide accurate, precise, repeatable and reproducible measurements. Further work in anisotropic and/or deforming phantoms is warranted.
Ferreira PF, Banerjee A, Scott AD, et al., 2022, Accelerating Cardiac Diffusion Tensor Imaging With a U-Net Based Model: Toward Single Breath-Hold, JOURNAL OF MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING, Vol: 56, Pages: 1691-1704, ISSN: 1053-1807
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Auger DA, Ghadimi S, Cai X, et al., 2022, Reproducibility of global and segmental myocardial strain using cine DENSE at 3 T: a multicenter cardiovascular magnetic resonance study in healthy subjects and patients with heart disease, Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance, Vol: 24, Pages: 23-23, ISSN: 1097-6647
BACKGROUND: While multiple cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) methods provide excellent reproducibility of global circumferential and global longitudinal strain, achieving highly reproducible segmental strain is more challenging. Previous single-center studies have demonstrated excellent reproducibility of displacement encoding with stimulated echoes (DENSE) segmental circumferential strain. The present study evaluated the reproducibility of DENSE for measurement of whole-slice or global circumferential (Ecc), longitudinal (Ell) and radial (Err) strain, torsion, and segmental Ecc at multiple centers. METHODS: Six centers participated and a total of 81 subjects were studied, including 60 healthy subjects and 21 patients with various types of heart disease. CMR utilized 3 T scanners, and cine DENSE images were acquired in three short-axis planes and in the four-chamber long-axis view. During one imaging session, each subject underwent two separate DENSE scans to assess inter-scan reproducibility. Each subject was taken out of the scanner and repositioned between the scans. Intra-user, inter-user-same-site, inter-user-different-site, and inter-user-Human-Deep-Learning (DL) comparisons assessed the reproducibility of different users analyzing the same data. Inter-scan comparisons assessed the reproducibility of DENSE from scan to scan. The reproducibility of whole-slice or global Ecc, Ell and Err, torsion, and segmental Ecc were quantified using Bland-Altman analysis, the coefficient of variation (CV), and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). CV was considered excellent for CV ≤ 10%, good for 10% < CV ≤ 20%, fair for 20% < CV ≤ 40%, and poor for CV > 40. ICC values were considered excellent for ICC > 0.74, good for ICC 0.6 < ICC ≤ 0.74, fair for ICC 0.4 < ICC ≤ 0.59
Dwornik M, Khalique Z, Rajakulasingam R, et al., 2022, Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance in Cardiomyopathy, International Journal of Cardiodiabetes
Scott A, Jackson T, Khalique Z, et al., 2022, Development of a CMR compatible large animal isolated heart model for direct comparison of beating and arrested hearts, NMR in Biomedicine, Vol: 35, ISSN: 0952-3480
BackgroundCardiac motion results in image artefacts and quantification errors in many cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) techniques, including microstructural assessment using diffusion tensor cardiovascular magnetic resonance (DT-CMR). Here we develop a CMR compatible isolated perfused porcine heart model that allows comparison of data obtained in beating and arrested states.Methods10 porcine hearts (8/10 for protocol optimisation) were harvested using a donor heart retrieval protocol and transported to the remote CMR facility. Langendorff perfusion in a 3D printed chamber and perfusion circuit re-established contraction. Hearts were imaged using cine, parametric mapping and STEAM DT-CMR at cardiac phases with the minimum and maximum wall thickness. High potassium and lithium perfusates were then used to arrest the heart in a slack and contracted state respectively. Imaging was repeated in both arrested states. After imaging, tissue was removed for subsequent histology in a location matched to the DT-CMR data using fiducial markers.ResultsRegular sustained contraction was successfully established in 6/10 hearts, including the final 5 hearts. Imaging was performed in 4 hearts and one underwent the full protocol including co-localised histology. Image quality was good and there was good agreement between DT-CMR data in equivalent beating and arrested states. Despite the use of autologous blood and dextran within the perfusate, T2, DT-CMR measures and an increase in mass was consistent with development of myocardial edema resulting in failure to achieve a true diastolic-like state. A contiguous stack of 313 5μm histological sections at and a 100μm thick section showing cell morphology on 3D fluorescent confocal microscopy co-localised to DT-CMR data were obtained.ConclusionsA CMR compatible isolated perfused beating heart setup for large animal hearts allows direct comparisons of beating and arrested heart data with subsequent co-localised histology without
Tanzer M, Ferreira P, Scott A, et al., 2022, Faster Diffusion Cardiac MRI with Deep Learning-Based Breath Hold Reduction, MEDICAL IMAGE UNDERSTANDING AND ANALYSIS, MIUA 2022, Vol: 13413, Pages: 101-115, ISSN: 0302-9743
Ghadimi S, Auger DA, Feng X, et al., 2021, Fully-automated global and segmental strain analysis of DENSE cardiovascular magnetic resonance using deep learning for segmentation and phase unwrapping, Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance, Vol: 23, ISSN: 1097-6647
BackgroundCardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) cine displacement encoding with stimulated echoes (DENSE) measures heart motion by encoding myocardial displacement into the signal phase, facilitating high accuracy and reproducibility of global and segmental myocardial strain and providing benefits in clinical performance. While conventional methods for strain analysis of DENSE images are faster than those for myocardial tagging, they still require manual user assistance. The present study developed and evaluated deep learning methods for fully-automatic DENSE strain analysis.MethodsConvolutional neural networks (CNNs) were developed and trained to (a) identify the left-ventricular (LV) epicardial and endocardial borders, (b) identify the anterior right-ventricular (RV)-LV insertion point, and (c) perform phase unwrapping. Subsequent conventional automatic steps were employed to compute strain. The networks were trained using 12,415 short-axis DENSE images from 45 healthy subjects and 19 heart disease patients and were tested using 10,510 images from 25 healthy subjects and 19 patients. Each individual CNN was evaluated, and the end-to-end fully-automatic deep learning pipeline was compared to conventional user-assisted DENSE analysis using linear correlation and Bland Altman analysis of circumferential strain.ResultsLV myocardial segmentation U-Nets achieved a DICE similarity coefficient of 0.87 ± 0.04, a Hausdorff distance of 2.7 ± 1.0 pixels, and a mean surface distance of 0.41 ± 0.29 pixels in comparison with manual LV myocardial segmentation by an expert. The anterior RV-LV insertion point was detected within 1.38 ± 0.9 pixels compared to manually annotated data. The phase-unwrapping U-Net had similar or lower mean squared error vs. ground-truth data compared to the conventional path-following method for images with typical signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) or low SNR (p <&
Ferreira PF, Martin RR, Scott AD, et al., 2020, Automating in vivo cardiac diffusion tensor postprocessing with deep learning-based segmentation, Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Vol: 84, Pages: 2801-2814, ISSN: 0740-3194
PurposeIn this work we develop and validate a fully automated postprocessing framework for in vivo diffusion tensor cardiac magnetic resonance (DT‐CMR) data powered by deep learning.MethodsA U‐Net based convolutional neural network was developed and trained to segment the heart in short‐axis DT‐CMR images. This was used as the basis to automate and enhance several stages of the DT‐CMR tensor calculation workflow, including image registration and removal of data corrupted with artifacts, and to segment the left ventricle. Previously collected and analyzed scans (348 healthy scans and 144 cardiomyopathy patient scans) were used to train and validate the U‐Net. All data were acquired at 3 T with a STEAM‐EPI sequence. The DT‐CMR postprocessing and U‐Net training/testing were performed with MATLAB and Python TensorFlow, respectively.ResultsThe U‐Net achieved a median Dice coefficient of 0.93 [0.92, 0.94] for the segmentation of the left‐ventricular myocardial region. The image registration of diffusion images improved with the U‐Net segmentation (P < .0001), and the identification of corrupted images achieved an F1 score of 0.70 when compared with an experienced user. Finally, the resulting tensor measures showed good agreement between an experienced user and the fully automated method.ConclusionThe trained U‐Net successfully automated the DT‐CMR postprocessing, supporting real‐time results and reducing human workload. The automatic segmentation of the heart improved image registration, resulting in improvements of the calculated DT parameters.
Nielles-Vallespin S, Scott A, Ferreira P, et al., 2020, Cardiac Diffusion: Technique and Practical Applications, JOURNAL OF MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING, Vol: 52, Pages: 348-368, ISSN: 1053-1807
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Tayal U, Wage R, Newsome S, et al., 2020, Predictors of left ventricular remodelling in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy - a cardiovascular magnetic resonance study, European Journal of Heart Failure, Vol: 22, Pages: 1160-1170, ISSN: 1388-9842
AimsThere is an important need for better biomarkers to predict left ventricular (LV) remodelling in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). We undertook a comprehensive assessment of cardiac structure and myocardial composition to determine predictors of remodelling.Methods and resultsProspective study of patients with recent‐onset DCM with cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) assessment of ventricular structure and function, extracellular volume (T1 mapping), myocardial strain, myocardial scar (late gadolinium enhancement) and contractile reserve (dobutamine stress). Regression analyses were used to evaluate predictors of change in LV ejection fraction (LVEF) over 12 months. We evaluated 56 participants (34 DCM patients, median LVEF 43%; 22 controls). Absolute LV contractile reserve predicted change in LVEF (1% increase associated with 0.4% increase in LVEF at 12 months, P = 0.02). Baseline myocardial strain (P = 0.39 global longitudinal strain), interstitial myocardial fibrosis (P = 0.41), replacement myocardial fibrosis (P = 0.25), and right ventricular contractile reserve (P = 0.17) were not associated with LV reverse remodelling. There was a poor correlation between contractile reserve and either LV extracellular volume fraction (r = −0.22, P = 0.23) or baseline LVEF (r = 0.07, P = 0.62). Men were more likely to experience adverse LV remodelling (P = 0.01) but age (P = 0.88) and disease‐modifying heart failure medication (beta‐blocker, P = 0.28; angiotensin‐converting enzyme inhibitor, P = 0.92) did not predict follow‐up LVEF.ConclusionsSubstantial recovery of LV function occurs within 12 months in most patients with recent‐onset DCM. Women had the greatest improvement in LVEF. A low LV contractile reserve measured by dobutamine stress CMR appears to identify patients whose LVEF is less likely to recover.
Khalique Z, Ferreira PF, Scott AD, et al., 2020, Diffusion tensor cardiovascular magnetic resonance in cardiac amyloidosis, Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging, Vol: 13, ISSN: 1941-9651
Background Cardiac amyloidosis (CA) is a disease of interstitial myocardial infiltration, usually by light chains or transthyretin. We used diffusion tensor cardiovascular magnetic resonance (DT-CMR) to noninvasively assess the effects of amyloid infiltration on the cardiac microstructure. Methods DT-CMR was performed at diastole and systole in 20 CA, 11 hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and 10 control subjects with calculation of mean diffusivity, fractional anisotropy, and sheetlet orientation (secondary eigenvector angle). Results Mean diffusivity was elevated and fractional anisotropy reduced in CA compared with both controls and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (P<0.001). In CA, mean diffusivity was correlated with extracellular volume (r=0.68, P=0.004), and fractional anisotropy was inversely correlated with circumferential strain (r=-0.65, P=0.02). In CA, diastolic secondary eigenvector angle was elevated, and secondary eigenvector angle mobility was reduced compared with controls (both P<0.001). Diastolic secondary eigenvector angle was correlated with amyloid burden measured by extracellular volume in transthyretin, but not light chain amyloidosis. Conclusions DT-CMR can characterize the microstructural effects of amyloid infiltration and is a contrast-free method to identify the location and extent of the expanded disorganized myocardium. The diffusion biomarkers mean diffusivity and fractional anisotropy effectively discriminate CA from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. DT-CMR demonstrated that failure of sheetlet relaxation in diastole correlated with extracellular volume in transthyretin, but not light chain amyloidosis. This indicates that different mechanisms may be responsible for impaired contractility in CA, with an amyloid burden effect in transthyretin, but an idiosyncratic effect in light chain amyloidosis. Consequently, DT-CMR offers a contrast-free tool to identify novel pathophysiology, improve diagnostics, and monitor disease through noninvasive micr
Khalique Z, Ferreira P, Scott A, et al., 2020, Diffusion tensor cardiovascular magnetic resonance: a clinical perspective, JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging, Vol: 13, Pages: 1235-1255, ISSN: 1936-878X
Imaging the heart is central to cardiac phenotyping but in clinical practice this has been restricted to macroscopic interrogation. Diffusion tensor cardiovascular magnetic resonance (DT-CMR) is a novel, non-invasive technique which is beginning to unlock details of this microstructure in humans in-vivo. DT-CMR demonstrates the helical cardiomyocyte arrangement that drives rotation and torsion. Sheetlets (functional units of cardiomyocytes, separated by shear layers) have been shown to reorientate between diastole and systole, revealing how microstructural function facilitates cardiac thickening. Measures of tissue diffusion can also be made; fractional anisotropy (a measure of myocyte organisation) and mean diffusivity (a measure of myocyte packing). Abnormal myocyte orientation and sheetlet function has been demonstrated in congenital heart disease, cardiomyopathy and after myocardial infarction. It is too early to predict the clinical importance of DT-CMR, but such unique in-vivo information will likely prove valuable in early diagnosis and risk prediction of cardiac dysfunction and arrhythmias.
Stoeck CT, Scott AD, Ferreira PF, et al., 2020, Motion-induced signal loss in In vivo cardiac diffusion-weighted imaging, Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Vol: 51, Pages: 319-320, ISSN: 1053-1807
Khalique Z, Scott AD, Ferreira PF, et al., 2019, Diffusion tensor cardiovascular magnetic resonance in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: a comparison of motion-compensated spin echo and stimulated echo techniques, Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics, Biology and Medicine, Vol: 33, Pages: 331-342, ISSN: 0968-5243
ObjectivesDiffusion tensor cardiovascular magnetic resonance (DT-CMR) interrogates myocardial microstructure. Two frequently used in vivo DT-CMR techniques are motion-compensated spin echo (M2-SE) and stimulated echo acquisition mode (STEAM). Whilst M2-SE is strain-insensitive and signal to noise ratio efficient, STEAM has a longer diffusion time and motion compensation is unnecessary. Here we compare STEAM and M2-SE DT-CMR in patients.Materials and methodsBiphasic DT-CMR using STEAM and M2-SE, late gadolinium imaging and pre/post gadolinium T1-mapping were performed in a mid-ventricular short-axis slice, in ten hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) patients at 3 T.ResultsAdequate quality data were obtained from all STEAM, but only 7/10 (systole) and 4/10 (diastole) M2-SE acquisitions. Compared with STEAM, M2-SE yielded higher systolic mean diffusivity (MD) (p = 0.02) and lower fractional anisotropy (FA) (p = 0.02, systole). Compared with segments with neither hypertrophy nor late gadolinium, segments with both had lower systolic FA using M2-SE (p = 0.02) and trend toward higher MD (p = 0.1). The negative correlation between FA and extracellular volume fraction was stronger with STEAM than M2-SE (r2 = 0.29, p < 0.001 STEAM vs. r2 = 0.10, p = 0.003 M2-SE).DiscussionIn HCM, only STEAM reliably assesses biphasic myocardial microstructure. Higher MD and lower FA from M2-SE reflect the shorter diffusion times. Further work will relate DT-CMR parameters and microstructural changes in disease.
Tayal U, Wage R, Ferreira P, et al., 2019, The feasibility of a novel limited field of view spiral cine DENSE sequence to assess myocardial strain in dilated cardiomyopathy, Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics, Biology and Medicine, Vol: 32, Pages: 317-329, ISSN: 0968-5243
ObjectiveDevelop an accelerated cine displacement encoding with stimulated echoes (DENSE) cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) sequence to enable clinically feasible myocardial strain evaluation in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM).Materials and methodsA spiral cine DENSE sequence was modified by limiting the field of view in two dimensions using in-plane slice-selective pulses in the stimulated echo. This reduced breath hold duration from 20RR to 14RR intervals. Following phantom and pilot studies, the feasibility of the sequence to assess peak radial, circumferential, and longitudinal strain was tested in control subjects (n = 18) and then applied in DCM patients (n = 29).ResultsDENSE acquisition was possible in all participants. Elements of the data were not analysable in 1 control (6%) and 4 DCM r(14%) subjects due to off-resonance or susceptibility artefacts and low signal-to-noise ratio. Peak radial, circumferential, short-axis contour strain and longitudinal strain was reduced in DCM patients (p < 0.001 vs. controls) and strain measurements correlated with left ventricular ejection fraction (with circumferential strain r = − 0.79, p < 0.0001; with vertical long-axis strain r = − 0.76, p < 0.0001). All strain measurements had good inter-observer agreement (ICC > 0.80), except peak radial strain.DiscussionWe demonstrate the feasibility of CMR strain assessment in healthy controls and DCM patients using an accelerated cine DENSE technique. This may facilitate integration of strain assessment into routine CMR studies.
Rose JN, Nielles-Vallespin S, Ferreira PF, et al., 2019, Novel insights into in-vivo diffusion tensor cardiovascular magnetic resonance using computational modelling and a histology-based virtual microstructure, Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Vol: 81, Pages: 2759-2773, ISSN: 0740-3194
PurposeTo develop histology‐informed simulations of diffusion tensor cardiovascular magnetic resonance (DT‐CMR) for typical in‐vivo pulse sequences and determine their sensitivity to changes in extra‐cellular space (ECS) and other microstructural parameters.MethodsWe synthesised the DT‐CMR signal from Monte Carlo random walk simulations. The virtual tissue was based on porcine histology. The cells were thickened and then shrunk to modify ECS. We also created idealised geometries using cuboids in regular arrangement, matching the extra‐cellular volume fraction (ECV) of 16–40%. The simulated voxel size was 2.8 × 2.8 × 8.0 mm3 for pulse sequences covering short and long diffusion times: Stejskal–Tanner pulsed‐gradient spin echo, second‐order motion‐compensated spin echo, and stimulated echo acquisition mode (STEAM), with clinically available gradient strengths.ResultsThe primary diffusion tensor eigenvalue increases linearly with ECV at a similar rate for all simulated geometries. Mean diffusivity (MD) varies linearly, too, but is higher for the substrates with more uniformly distributed ECS. Fractional anisotropy (FA) for the histology‐based geometry is higher than the idealised geometry with low sensitivity to ECV, except for the long mixing time of the STEAM sequence. Varying the intra‐cellular diffusivity (DIC) results in large changes of MD and FA. Varying extra‐cellular diffusivity or using stronger gradients has minor effects on FA. Uncertainties of the primary eigenvector orientation are reduced using STEAM.ConclusionsWe found that the distribution of ECS has a measurable impact on DT‐CMR parameters. The observed sensitivity of MD and FA to ECV and DIC has potentially interesting applications for interpreting in‐vivo DT‐CMR parameters.
Gorodezky M, Ferreira P, Nielles-Vallespin S, et al., 2019, High resolution in-vivo DT-CMR using an interleaved variable density spiral STEAM sequence, Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Vol: 81, Pages: 1580-1594, ISSN: 0740-3194
Purpose: Diffusion tensor cardiovascular magnetic resonance (DT-CMR) has a limited spatial resolution. Thepurpose of this study was to demonstrate high-resolution DT-CMR using a segmented variable density spiralsequence with correction for motion, off-resonance and T2* related blurring.Methods: A single-shot STEAM EPI DT-CMR sequence at 2.8x2.8x8mm3 and 1.8x1.8x8mm3 was compared to asingle shot spiral at 2.8x2.8x8mm3 and an interleaved spiral sequence at 1.8x1.8x8mm3resolution in 10 healthyvolunteers at peak-systole and diastasis. Motion-induced phase was corrected using the densely sampledcentral k-space data of the spirals. STEAM field maps and T2* measures were obtained using a pair ofstimulated echoes each with a double spiral readout, the first used to correct the motion-induced phase of thesecond.Results: The high resolution spiral sequence produced similar DT-CMR results and quality measures to thestandard resolution sequence in both cardiac phases. Residual differences in fractional anisotropy and helixangle gradient between the resolutions could be due to spatial resolution and/or signal to noise ratio. The dataquality increased after both motion-induced phase correction and off-resonance correction and sharpnessincreased after T2* correction. The high resolution EPI sequence failed to provide sufficient data quality forDT-CMR reconstruction.Conclusion: In this study an in-vivo DT-CMR acquisition at 1.8x1.8mm2in-plane resolution was demonstratedusing a segmented spiral STEAM sequence. The motion-induced phase and off-resonance corrections areessential for high resolution spiral DT-CMR. Segmented variable density spiral STEAM was found to be theoptimal method for acquiring high resolution DT-CMR data.
Khalique Z, Ferreira P, Scott A, et al., 2018, Diffusion Tensor Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance of Microstructural Recovery in Dilated Cardiomyopathy, JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging, Vol: 11, Pages: 1548-1550, ISSN: 1936-878X
Schlemper J, Yang G, Ferreira P, et al., 2018, Stochastic deep compressive sensing for the reconstruction of diffusion tensor cardiac MRI, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol: 11070 LNCS, Pages: 295-303, ISSN: 0302-9743
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018. Understanding the structure of the heart at the microscopic scale of cardiomyocytes and their aggregates provides new insights into the mechanisms of heart disease and enables the investigation of effective therapeutics. Diffusion Tensor Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (DT-CMR) is a unique non-invasive technique that can resolve the microscopic structure, organisation, and integrity of the myocardium without the need for exogenous contrast agents. However, this technique suffers from relatively low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and frequent signal loss due to respiratory and cardiac motion. Current DT-CMR techniques rely on acquiring and averaging multiple signal acquisitions to improve the SNR. Moreover, in order to mitigate the influence of respiratory movement, patients are required to perform many breath holds which results in prolonged acquisition durations (e.g., ~ 30 min using the existing technology). In this study, we propose a novel cascaded Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) based compressive sensing (CS) technique and explore its applicability to improve DT-CMR acquisitions. Our simulation based studies have achieved high reconstruction fidelity and good agreement between DT-CMR parameters obtained with the proposed reconstruction and fully sampled ground truth. When compared to other state-of-the-art methods, our proposed deep cascaded CNN method and its stochastic variation demonstrated significant improvements. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study using deep CNN based CS for the DT-CMR reconstruction. In addition, with relatively straightforward modifications to the acquisition scheme, our method can easily be translated into a method for online, at-the-scanner reconstruction enabling the deployment of accelerated DT-CMR in various clinical applications.
Pennell DJ, Khalique Z, Ferreira PF, et al., 2018, Deranged myocyte microstructure in situs inversus totalis demonstrated by diffusion tensor cardiovascular magnetic resonance, JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging, Vol: 11, Pages: 1360-1362, ISSN: 1936-878X
Gorodezky M, Scott AD, Ferreira PF, et al., 2018, Diffusion tensor cardiovascular magnetic resonance with a spiral trajectory: An in vivo comparison of echo planar and spiral stimulated echo sequences, Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Vol: 80, Pages: 648-654, ISSN: 0740-3194
PURPOSE: Diffusion tensor cardiovascular MR (DT-CMR) using stimulated echo acquisition mode (STEAM) with echo-planar-imaging (EPI) readouts is a low signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) technique and therefore typically has a low spatial resolution. Spiral trajectories are more efficient than EPI, and could increase the SNR. The purpose of this study was to compare the performance of a novel STEAM spiral DT-CMR sequence with an equivalent established EPI technique. METHODS: A STEAM DT-CMR sequence was implemented with a spiral readout and a reduced field of view. An in vivo comparison of DT-CMR parameters and data quality between EPI and spiral was performed in 11 healthy volunteers imaged in peak systole and diastasis at 3 T. The SNR was compared in a phantom and in vivo. RESULTS: There was a greater than 49% increase in the SNR in vivo and in the phantom measurements (in vivo septum, systole: SNREPI = 8.0 ± 2.2, SNRspiral = 12.0 ± 2.7; diastasis: SNREPI = 8.1 ± 1.6, SNRspiral = 12.0 ± 3.7). There were no significant differences in helix angle gradient (HAG) (systole: HAGEPI = -0.79 ± 0.07 °/%; HAGspiral = -0.74 ± 0.16 °/%; P = 0.11; diastasis: HAGEPI = -0.63 ± 0.05 °/%; HAGspiral = -0.56 ± 0.14 °/%; P = 0.20), mean diffusivity (MD) in systole (MDEPI = 0.99 ± 0.06 × 10-3 mm2 /s, MDspiral = 1.00 ± 0.09 × 10-3 mm2 /s, P = 0.23) and secondary eigenvector angulation (E2A) (systole: E2AEPI = 61 ± 10 °; E2Aspiral = 63 ± 10 °; P&thi
Scott AD, Nielles-Vallespin S, Ferreira P, et al., 2018, An in-vivo comparison of stimulated-echo and motion compensated spin-echo sequences for 3T diffusion tensor cardiovascular magnetic resonance at multiple cardiac phases, Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance, Vol: 20, ISSN: 1097-6647
BackgroundStimulated-echo (STEAM) and, more recently, motion-compensated spin-echo (M2-SE) techniques have been used for in-vivo diffusion tensor cardiovascular magnetic resonance (DT-CMR) assessment of cardiac microstructure. The two techniques differ in the length scales of diffusion interrogated, their signal-to-noise ratio efficiency and sensitivity to both motion and strain. Previous comparisons of the techniques have used high performance gradients at 1.5 T in a single cardiac phase. However, recent work using STEAM has demonstrated novel findings of microscopic dysfunction in cardiomyopathy patients, when DT-CMR was performed at multiple cardiac phases. We compare STEAM and M2-SE using a clinical 3 T scanner in three potentially clinically interesting cardiac phases.MethodsBreath hold mid-ventricular short-axis DT-CMR was performed in 15 subjects using M2-SE and STEAM at end-systole, systolic sweet-spot and diastasis. Success was defined by ≥50% of the myocardium demonstrating normal helix angles. From successful acquisitions DT-CMR results relating to tensor orientation, size and shape were compared between sequences and cardiac phases using non-parametric statistics. Strain information was obtained using cine spiral displacement encoding with stimulated echoes for comparison with DT-CMR results.ResultsAcquisitions were successful in 98% of STEAM and 76% of M2-SE cases and visual helix angle (HA) map scores were higher for STEAM at the sweet-spot and diastasis. There were significant differences between sequences (p < 0.05) in mean diffusivity (MD), fractional anisotropy (FA), tensor mode, transmural HA gradient and absolute second eigenvector angle (E2A). Differences in E2A between systole and diastole correlated with peak radial strain for both sequences (p ≤ 0.01).ConclusionM2-SE and STEAM can be performed equally well at peak systole at 3 T using standard gradients, but at the sweet-spot and diastole STEAM is more rel
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