Full free-breathing motion-corrected cardiac cine and late gadolinium enhancement MRI: feasibility and validation in clinical practice
摘要
To validate the use of full free-breathing (FB) motion-corrected (MoCo) cardiac MRI examinations in assessing biventricular systolic function and tissue characterization compared with the reference standard breath-hold (BH) examination. In this prospective study, 216 patients underwent 3-T cardiac MRI. Of these patients, 113 underwent FB motion-corrected cardiac cine imaging in addition to standard BH cine imaging; the remaining 103 patients underwent FB motion-corrected late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) imaging in addition to standard BH LGE imaging. Image quality was assessed with a five-point scale (1 = nondiagnostic, 5 = very good). Left ventricular (LV) and right ventricular (RV) functional parameters and LGE mass in BH and FB examinations were analyzed using Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Bland-Altman plots, and linear regression. Subjective image quality between the FB and BH groups was comparable for cine imaging (4.02 ± 0.81 vs. 4.14 ± 0.79, P = 0.220) but was significantly better in the FB group for LGE (4.79 ± 0.46 vs. 4.16 ± 0.79, P < 0.001). Scan times for both cine (149.46 ± 32.29 s vs. 392.61 ± 47.02 s, P < 0.001) and LGE (198.12 ± 41.90 s vs. 361.69 ± 46.17 s, P < 0.001) were consistently shorter in the FB group than in the BH group. No significant differences were found in biventricular volumetric parameters or LGE mass measurements between FB and BH groups. Bland-Altman plots and linear regression analysis showed good agreement for LV and RV functional parameters and LGE mass in BH and FB sequences. Full FB cardiac MRI produces high-quality images and could be a suitable alternative for patients who cannot tolerate multiple BHs or long examination times.