Objective

Image post-processing corrects for cardiac and respiratory motion (MoCo) during cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) stress perfusion. The study analyzed its influence on visual image evaluation.

Materials and methods

Sixty-two patients with (suspected) coronary artery disease underwent a standard CMR stress perfusion exam during free-breathing. Image post-processing was performed without (non-MoCo) and with MoCo (image intensity normalization; motion extraction with iterative non-rigid registration; motion warping with the combined displacement field). Images were evaluated regarding the perfusion pattern (perfusion deficit, dark rim artifact, uncertain signal loss, and normal perfusion), the general image quality (non-diagnostic, imperfect, good, and excellent), and the reader’s subjective confidence to assess the images (not confident, confident, very confident).

Results

Fifty-three (non-MoCo) and 52 (MoCo) myocardial segments were rated as ‘perfusion deficit’, 113 vs. 109 as ‘dark rim artifacts’, 9 vs. 7 as ‘uncertain signal loss’, and 817 vs. 824 as ‘normal’. Agreement between non-MoCo and MoCo was high with no diagnostic difference per-patient. The image quality of MoCo was rated more often as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ (92 vs. 63%), and the diagnostic confidence more often as “very confident” (71 vs. 45%) compared to non-MoCo.

Conclusions

The comparison of perfusion images acquired during free-breathing and post-processed with and without motion correction demonstrated that both methods led to a consistent evaluation of the perfusion pattern, while the image quality and the reader’s subjective confidence to assess the images were rated more favorably for MoCo.

中文翻译：

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运动校正对心脏磁共振应力灌注成像视觉分析的影响

客观的

图像后处理可在心血管磁共振 (CMR) 应力灌注期间校正心脏和呼吸运动 (MoCo)。该研究分析了其对视觉图像评估的影响。

材料和方法

62 名（疑似）冠状动脉疾病患者在自由呼吸期间接受了标准的 CMR 应力灌注检查。在不使用（非 MoCo）和使用 MoCo（图像强度归一化；使用迭代非刚性配准的运动提取；使用组合位移场的运动扭曲）的情况下执行图像后处理。评估图像的灌注模式（灌注不足、暗边缘伪影、不确定的信号丢失和正常灌注）、一般图像质量（非诊断性、不完美、良好和优秀）以及读者评估图像的主观信心（不自信，自信，非常自信）。

结果

53 个（非 MoCo）和 52 个（MoCo）心肌节段被评为“灌注不足”，113 对 109 为“暗边缘伪影”，9 对 7 为“不确定信号丢失”，817 对 824像平常一样'。非 MoCo 和 MoCo 之间的一致性很高，每个患者没有诊断差异。与非 MoCo 相比，MoCo 的图像质量更常被评为“良好”或“优秀”（92% 对 63%），诊断置信度更常被评为“非常有信心”（71% 对 45%）。

结论

自由呼吸过程中获得的灌注图像与有和没有运动校正后处理的灌注图像的比较表明，这两种方法都导致对灌注模式的一致评估，而图像质量和读者对图像评估的主观信心被评为更有利为 MoCo。