Reproducible evaluation of diastolic function using phase-contrast magnetic resonance data

The evaluation of diastolic function from phase-contrast (PC) Magnetic Resonance (MR) data in clinical routine is not yet established. Thus, our goal was to develop a reproducible process to analyze PC data. These developments were used to estimate mitral flow and myocardial velocities from PC data of 40 controls. Besides, the reproducibility was assessed on a sub-group of 20 subjects. Transmitral flow and myocardial patterns were successfully delineated on each cardiac phase, resulting in conventional diastolic parameters, consistent with echocardiographic literature. Moreover, new proposed parameters correlated strongly (r>0.8) with those with high prognostic value. Finally, the flow segmentation was reproducible (99.5±2.1% of overlap between two segmentations), and a low inter-operators variability (<3.65%) in diastolic parameters measurements was obtained. Our technique provides a valuable addition to established cardiac MR tools.