Hj. Lamb et al., ECHO-PLANAR MRI OF THE HEART ON A STANDARD SYSTEM - VALIDATION OF MEASUREMENTS OF LEFT-VENTRICULAR FUNCTION AND MASS, Journal of computer assisted tomography, 20(6), 1996, pp. 942-949
Objective: Our goal was to validate cardiac measurements derived from
multishot echo planar MRI (EPI) as compared with the well validated co
nventional GRE technique. Method: Ten healthy subjects underwent breat
h-hold EPI and non-breath-hold GRE imaging in the short axis orientati
on of the left ventricle (LV) on a standard 1.5 T MR system. Ten secti
on levels were obtained to encompass the entire LV. Measurements were
obtained of end-diastolic volume (EDV), end-systolic volume (ESV), str
oke volume (SV), ejection fraction (EF), LV mass, time to end-systole
(TES), and peak filling rate (PFR). Analysis of variance was performed
to determine agreement between GRE- and EPI-derived measurements. Res
ults: The acquisition time for EPI was much shorter than that for GRE
(2.5 vs. 15 min). Both imaging techniques yielded good quality images
allowing LV volumetrics. Agreement between CRE and EPI was best for me
asurements of EDV, SV, and LV mass; somewhat less agreement was found
for ESV, EF, TES, and PFR. The intraobserver variability for measuring
TES and PFR was higher for GRE than EPI (one sided F test; critical v
alues at p = 0.05 were >3.18). Conclusion: Multishot EPI of the heart
provides accurate measurements of LV function and mass in a time-effic
ient manner.