Comparison of Magnetic Resonance Feature Tracking for Systolic and Diastolic Strain and Strain Rate Calculation With Spatial Modulation of Magnetization Imaging Analysis

PurposeTo compare cardiovascular magnetic resonance-feature tracking (CMR-FT) with spatial modulation of magnetization (SPAMM) tagged imaging for the calculation of short and long axis Lagrangian strain measures in systole and diastole. Materials and MethodsHealthy controls (n = 35) and patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (n = 10) were identified prospectively and underwent steady-state free precession (SSFP) cine imaging and SPAMM imaging using a gradient-echo sequence. A timed offline analysis of images acquired at identical horizontal long and short axis slice positions was performed using CMR-FT and dynamic tissue-tagging (CIMTag2D). Agreement between strain and strain rate (SR) values calculated using these two different methods was assessed using the Bland-Altman technique. ResultsAcross all participants, there was good agreement between CMR-FT and CIMTag for calculation of peak systolic global circumferential strain (-22.7 6.2% vs. -22.5 +/- 6.9%, bias 0.2 +/- 4.0%) and SR (-1.35 +/- 0.42 1/s vs. -1.22 +/- 0.42 1/s, bias 0.13 +/- 0.33 1/s) and early diastolic global circumferential SR (1.21 +/- 0.44 1/s vs. 1.07 +/- 0.30 1/s, bias -0.14 +/- 0.34 1/s) at the subendocardium. There was satisfactory agreement for derivation of peak systolic global longitudinal strain (-18.1 +/- 5.0% vs. -16.7 +/- 4.8%, bias 1.3 +/- 3.8%) and SR (-1.04 +/- 0.29 1/s vs. -0.95 +/- 0.32 1/s, bias 0.09 +/- 0.26 1/s). The weakest agreement was for early diastolic global longitudinal SR (1.10 +/- 0.40 1/s vs. 0.67 +/- 0.32 1/s, bias -0.42 +/- 0.40 1/s), although the correlation remained significant (r = 0.42, P < 0.01). CMR-FT generated these data over four times quicker than CIMTag. ConclusionThere is sufficient agreement between systolic and diastolic strain measures calculated using CMR-FT and myocardial tagging for CMR-FT to be considered as a potentially feasible and rapid alternative. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2015;41:1000-1012. (c) 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.