P. Croisille et al., PRECISION OF MYOCARDIAL CONTOUR ESTIMATION FROM TAGGED MR-IMAGES WITHA BLACK-BLOOD TECHNIQUE, Academic radiology, 5(2), 1998, pp. 93-100
Rationale and Objectives. The authors determined whether blood presatu
ration of tagged magnetic resonance (MR) images affects identification
of left ventricular endocardial borders. Materials and Methods. Three
healthy volunteers underwent MR imaging performed with a breath-hold
segmented spoiled gradient-recalled-echo sequence with tissue tagging.
Two saturation pulses (in the basal and apical regions) were used to
generate black-blood images. Manual segmentation of endocardial contou
rs on black-blood and white-blood images was performed independently b
y five observers. Results. Endocardial borders were better identified
on black-blood images compared with white-blood images, especially in
the early systolic phases. Interobserver variability in contour estima
tion was significantly higher for white-blood images (P < .001) and wa
s twice that for corresponding black-blood images during early systole
. Contour variability appeared to be affected mainly by tag-to-myocard
ium contrast (P = .009) and myocardium-to-chamber contrast (P = .05).
Conclusion. Blood presaturation of tagged MR images improves reliabili
ty of contour segmentation.