An approach to the three-dimensional display of left ventricular function and viability using MRI

Cardiac MRI was performed in human volunteers to determine the magnitude of the misregistration (MSR) of cardiac landmarks due to variability in the diaphragm position for repeated breath-holds. Seven normal volunteers underwent MR imaging of the left ventricle (LV) to evaluate the magnitude of the endocardial centroid MSR. The MSR for a mid-ventricle short-axis image was 3.01 +/- 1.68 mm through-plane and 4.16 +/- 1.62 mm in-plane. A second order polynomial fit through the LV centroid coordinates minimized the in-plane component of the MSR error. Short-axis cine images, corrected for MSR, provided high-resolution 2D data from which an accurate anatomical model of the LV was generated. Anatomical landmarks were used to register parametric maps of myocardial perfusion and viability to the three-dimensional (3D) model, with the corresponding parameters displayed as color-encoded values on the endo- and epicardial surfaces of the LV. Registration of regional wall motion, perfusion and viability to the 3D model was performed for three patients with a history of cardiovascular disease. The proposed 3D reconstruction technique allows visualization in 3D of the LV anatomy, in combination with parametric mapping of its functional status.