An accelerated MRI sequence can help radiologists assess ischemic heart disease without requiring patients to hold their breath, according to new research published Wednesday.
Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging plays a central role in evaluating and diagnosing patients with such heart damage, caused by poor blood flow. However, these examinations can take a long time and require patients to repeatedly perform breath holds to avoid respiratory artifacts, researchers detailed in the American Journal of Roentgenology [1].
“These breath holds may be difficult in patients with [ischemic heart disease] and can lead to suboptimal image quality, resulting in possible measurement errors,” David Monteuuis, MD, with the Department of Radiology at Amiens University Hospital in France, and co-authors wrote Feb. 7.
To address this problem, scientists conducted a prospective study incorporating patients who underwent cardiac MRI for evaluation of ischemic heart disease between March and June of 2023. Examinations included an investigational, free-breathing, short-axis imaging sequence that used deep learning to reconstruct the images. Two radiologists assessed the image quality for both MRI approaches.
The analysis included a total of 26 patients. Acquisition times proved shorter for the deep learning-based method when compared to the standard sequence. And the accelerated approach also showed no significant difference when assessing left-ventricular ejection fraction. Both radiologists said the subjective image quality was better for the deep learning-based images. However, blurring artifacts were more frequent, the authors noted.
“The improved subjective image quality of the cine-[deep learning] sequence likely in part relates to the sequence’s respiratory synchronization, in comparison with the standard sequence’s reliance on adequate breath-holding, which may be challenging in dyspneic patients,” Monteuuis and colleagues wrote.
Read much more, including potential study limitations, in AJR at the link below.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.