Myocardial strain in healthy adults across a broad age range as revealed by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging at 1.5 and 3.0T: associations of myocardial strain with myocardial region, age, and sex

Abstract

Purpose: We assessed myocardial strain using cine displacement encoding with stimulated echoes (DENSE) using 1.5T and 3.0T MRI in healthy adults. Materials and Methods: Healthy adults without any history of cardiovascular disease underwent MRI at 1.5T and 3.0T within 2 days. The MRI protocol included b-SSFP, 2D cine-EPI-DENSE, and late gadolinium enhancement in subjects>45 years. Acquisitions were divided into 6 segments, global and segmental peak longitudinal and circumferential strain were derived and analyzed by field strength, age and gender. Results: 89 volunteers (mean age 44.8 ± 18.0 years, range: 18-87 years) underwent MRI at 1.5T, and 88 of these subjects underwent MRI at 3.0T (1.4±1.4 days between the scans). Compared with 3.0T, the magnitudes of global circumferential (-19.5±2.6% vs. -18.47±2.6%; p=0.001) and longitudinal (-12.47±3.2% vs -10.53±3.1%; p=0.004) strain were greater at 1.5T. At 1.5T, longitudinal strain was greater in females than in males: -10.17±3.4% vs. -13.67±2.4%; p=0.001. Similar observations occurred for circumferential strain at 1.5T (-18.72±2.2% vs. -20.10±2.7%; p=0.014) and at 3.0T (-17.92 ± 1.8% vs -19.1 ± 3.1%; p=0.047). At 1.5T, longitudinal and circumferential strain were not associated with age after accounting for sex (longitudinal strain p= 0.178, circumferential strain p= 0.733). At 3.0T, longitudinal and circumferential strain were associated with age. (p<0.05) Longitudinal strain values were greater in the apico-septal, basal-lateral and mid-lateral segments and circumferential strain in the inferior, infero-lateral and antero-lateral LV segments. Conclusion: Myocardial strain parameters as revealed by cine-DENSE at different MRI field strengths were associated with myocardial region, age and sex