Objective To study the application value of motion-correction phase sensitive inversion recovery (MOCO-PSIR) to evaluate myocardial fibrosis in the patients with heart failure caused by dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM).
Methods A prospective study included 60 patients who underwent cardiac MRI enhanced scan from June 2017 to November 2018, including 38 patients who were clinically diagnosed with DCM and 22 patients in the normal control group. All patients were scanned with three late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) sequences: segmented-PSIR, single-shot-PSIR, MOCO-PSIR at the same time. The subjective quality score (level 4) and image signal-to-noise ratio (objective evaluation) of normal and abnormal myocardium were analyzed and compared in three scanning technique groups. The detection rate of myocardial fibrosis and image acquisition time of the three scanning techniques were recorded.
Results In the normal control group (sinus rhythm), subjective score showed no statistical significance. Subjective scoring results in the patients with DCM: MOCO-PSIR>single-shot-PSIR> segmented-PSIR (P < 0.05). SNR results PSIR-LGE images in DCM patients as well as control group: segmented-PSIR>MOCO-PSIR> single-shot-PSIR (P < 0.05). In the whole 646 segments analysis of DCM patients, the ratio unable to judge in segmented-PSIR was up to 25.5%, but only 1.4% in MOCO-PSIR. Significant difference was found in the three groups. While in the 374 segments of control group, no statistical difference was found in comparison of incapability to judge. Acquisition time covered left ventricular: (5.6±1.7) min in segmented-PSIR, (0.4±0.2) min in single-shot-PSIR and (4.5±1.1) min in MOCO-PSIR. Pairwise comparison of acquisition time among three scanning techniques was statistically significant (P < 0.001).
Conclusion MOCO-PSIR-LGE has better clinical significance than conventional delayed enhanced scan sequences in the diagnosis of myocardial fibrosis in the patients with heart failure caused by dilated cardiomyopathy.