High-resolution maps of left atrial displacements and strains estimated with 3D cine mri using online learning neural networks
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The functional analysis of the left atrium (LA) is important for evaluating cardiac health and understanding diseases like atrial fibrillation. Cine MRI is ideally placed for the detailed 3D characterization of LA motion and deformation but is lacking appropriate acquisition and analysis tools. Here, we propose tools for the Analysis of Left Atrial Displacements and DeformatIons using online learning neural Networks (Aladdin) and present a technical feasibility study on how Aladdin can characterize 3D LA function globally and regionally. Aladdin includes an online segmentation and image registration network, and a strain calculation pipeline tailored to the LA. We create maps of LA Displacement Vector Field (DVF) magnitude and LA principal strain values from images of 10 healthy volunteers and 8 patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD), of which 2 had large left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) impairment. We additionally create an atlas of these biomarkers using the data from the healthy volunteers. Results showed that Aladdin can accurately track the LA wall across the cardiac cycle and characterize its motion and deformation. Global LA function markers assessed with Aladdin agree well with estimates from 2D Cine MRI. A more marked active contraction phase was observed in the healthy cohort, while the CVD LVEF↓ group showed overall reduced LA function. Aladdin is uniquely able to identify LA regions with abnormal deformation metrics that may indicate focal pathology. We expect Aladdin to have important clinical applications as it can non-invasively characterize atrial pathophysiology. All source code and data are available at: https://github.com/cgalaz01/aladdin_cmr_la.
Date Issued
2025-05-01
Date Acceptance
2024-12-27
Citation
IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 2025, 44 (5), pp.2056-2067
ISSN
0278-0062
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Start Page
2056
End Page
2067
Journal / Book Title
IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging
Volume
44
Issue
5
Copyright Statement
© 2025 The Authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License URL
Identifier
10.1109/TMI.2025.3526364
Subjects
08 Information and Computing Sciences
09 Engineering
Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2025-01-06