Quantitative analysis of myocardial motion in cardiac magnetic resonance imaging using covariance function

The extraction of additional quantitative features are needed in cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) exam to characterize the regional wall motion abnormalities related to several cardiac pathologies. The aim of this study is to present a method for myocardial wall motion analysis based on the covariance function. We tested the proposed method on cine MRI images related to 26 subjects (12 with myocardial infarction, 5 with myocarditis, 5 healthy subjects and 4 with dilated cardiomyopathy (CMD)) with age ranging from 19 to 80. The outcomes of this study show that the proposed image based on the covariance image is able to represent a tool to identify the location, the transmurality of wall motion abnormalities related to different cardiac pathologies. Therefore, this technique is likely to provide additional information to CMR clinical practice.