A multi-vendor, multi-center study on reproducibility and comparability of fast strain-encoded cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging.
Myocardial strain is a convenient parameter to quantify left ventricular (LV) function. Fast strain-encoding (fSENC) enables the acquisition of cardiovascular magnetic resonance images for strain-measurement within a few heartbeats during free-breathing. It is necessary to analyze inter-vendor agreement of techniques to determine strain, such as fSENC, in order to compare existing studies and plan multi-center studies. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate inter-vendor agreement and test-retest reproducibility of fSENC for three major MRI-vendors. fSENC-images were acquired three times in the same group of 15 healthy volunteers using 3 Tesla scanners from three different vendors: at the German Heart Institute Berlin, the Charité University Medicine Berlin-Campus Buch and the Theresien-Hospital Mannheim. Volunteers were scanned using the same imaging protocol composed of two fSENC-acquisitions, a 15-min break and another two fSENC-acquisitions. LV global longitudinal and circumferential strain (GLS, GCS) were analyzed by a trained observer (Myostrain 5.0, Myocardial Solutions) and for nine volunteers repeatedly by another observer. Inter-vendor agreement was determined using Bland-Altman analysis. Test-retest reproducibility and intra- and inter-observer reproducibility were analyzed using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and coefficients of variation (CoV). Inter-vendor agreement between all three sites was good for GLS and GCS, with biases of 0.01-1.88%. Test-retest reproducibility of scans before and after the break was high, shown by ICC- and CoV values of 0.63-0.97 and 3-9% for GLS and 0.69-0.82 and 4-7% for GCS, respectively. Intra- and inter-observer reproducibility were excellent for both parameters (ICC of 0.77-0.99, CoV of 2-5%). This trial demonstrates good inter-vendor agreement and test-retest reproducibility of GLS and GCS measurements, acquired at three different scanners from three different vendors using fSENC. The results indicate that it is necessary to account for a possible bias (< 2%) when comparing strain measurements of different scanners. Technical differences between scanners, which impact inter-vendor agreement, should be further analyzed and minimized.DRKS Registration Number: 00013253.Universal Trial Number (UTN): U1111-1207-5874.
['Erley|Jennifer|J|http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4855-7698', 'Zieschang|Victoria|V|', 'Lapinskas|Tomas|T|', 'Demir|Aylin|A|', 'Wiesemann|Stephanie|S|', 'Haass|Markus|M|', 'Osman|Nael F|NF|', 'Simonetti|Orlando P|OP|', 'Liu|Yingmin|Y|', 'Patel|Amit R|AR|', 'Mor-Avi|Victor|V|', 'Unal|Orhan|O|', 'Johnson|Kevin M|KM|', 'Pieske|Burkert|B|', 'Hansmann|Jochen|J|', 'Schulz-Menger|Jeanette|J|', 'Kelle|Sebastian|S|']
D000328:Adult D004867:Equipment Design D005260:Female D005858:Germany D064368:Healthy Volunteers D006352:Heart Ventricles D006801:Humans D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging D008297:Male D009200:Myocardial Contraction D015588:Observer Variation D015203:Reproducibility of Results D016277:Ventricular Function, Left D055815:Young Adult
Reproducibility Magnetic resonance Strain fSENC Agreement CMR Cardiac