Abstract

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.