Validation of cardiac diffusion tensor imaging sequences: A multi-centre test-retest phantom study
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Cardiac diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is an emerging technique for the in vivo characterisation of myocardial microstructure, and there is a growing need for its validation and standardisation. We sought to establish accuracy, precision, repeatability and reproducibility of state-of-the-art pulse sequences for cardiac DTI between ten centres internationally. METHODS: Phantoms comprising 0-20% polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) were scanned with DTI using a product pulsed gradient spin echo (PGSE; N=10 sites) sequence, and a custom motion-compensated spin echo (SE; N=5) or stimulated echo (STEAM; N=5) sequence suitable for cardiac DTI in vivo. A second identical scan was performed 1-9 days post, and the data analysed centrally. RESULTS: The average mean diffusivities (MD) in 0% PVP were (1.124, 1.130, 1.113) × 10-3 mm2 /s for PGSE, SE and STEAM respectively, and accurate to within 1.5% of reference data from literature. The coefficients of variation in MD across sites were 2.6%, 3.1%, 2.1% for PGSE, SE and STEAM, and were similar to previous studies using only PGSE. Reproducibility in MD was excellent, with mean differences in PGSE, SE and STEAM of (0.3 ± 2.3, 0.24 ± 0.95, 0.52 ± 0.58) × 10-5 mm2 /s (mean ± 1.96SD). CONCLUSION: We show that custom sequences for cardiac DTI provide accurate, precise, repeatable and reproducible measurements. Further work in anisotropic and/or deforming phantoms is warranted.
Date Issued
2022-06
Date Acceptance
2021-12-24
Citation
NMR in Biomedicine, 2022, 35 (6), pp.1-18
ISSN
0952-3480
Publisher
John Wiley and Sons
Start Page
1
End Page
18
Journal / Book Title
NMR in Biomedicine
Volume
35
Issue
6
Copyright Statement
© 2021 The Authors. NMR in Biomedicine published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Sponsor
British Heart Foundation
British Heart Foundation
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34967060
Grant Number
RG/19/1/34160
RG/19/1/34160
Subjects
Cardiac DTI
isotropic phantom
multi-centre
polyvinylpyrrolidone
pulse sequence validation
reproducibility
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Date Publish Online
2021-12-29