Säring D, Ehrhardt J, Stork A, Bansmann M P, Lund G K, Handels H
Department of Medical Informatics, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20246 Hamburg, Germany.
Methods Inf Med. 2006;45(4):377-83.
Spatial-temporal MR image sequences of the heart contain information about shape and motion changes and pathological structures after myocardial infarction. In this paper a Heart Analysis Tool (HeAT) for the quantitative analysis of 4D MR image sequences of infarct patients is presented.
HeAT supports interactive segmentation of anatomical and pathological structures. Registration of Cine- and DE-MR image data is applied to enable their combined evaluation during the analysis process. Partitioning of the myocardium in segments enables the analysis with high local resolution. Corresponding segments are generated and used for inter/intrapatient comparison. Quantitative parameters were extracted and visualized.
Parameters like endocard movement in the infarcted area of six infarct patients were computed in HeAT. Parameters in the infarct area show the expected dysfunctional characteristics. Based on theses parameters passive endocardial movement and myocardial areas with decreased contraction could be identified.
In contrast to other software tools HeAT supports the combination of contour information of Cine-MR and DE-MR, local analysis with high resolution and inter/intra patient comparison. HeAT enables an observer-independent evaluation of the complex cardiac image data. Using HeAT in further studies can increase the understanding of left ventricle (LV) remodeling.
心脏的时空磁共振图像序列包含心肌梗死后形状、运动变化及病理结构的信息。本文介绍一种用于梗死患者四维磁共振图像序列定量分析的心脏分析工具（HeAT）。
HeAT支持对解剖和病理结构进行交互式分割。应用电影磁共振成像（Cine-MR）和延迟增强磁共振成像（DE-MR）图像数据配准，以便在分析过程中进行联合评估。将心肌划分为节段可实现高局部分辨率分析。生成相应节段并用于患者间/患者内比较。提取并可视化定量参数。
在HeAT中计算了6例梗死患者梗死区域的心内膜运动等参数。梗死区域的参数显示出预期的功能障碍特征。基于这些参数，可识别被动心内膜运动及收缩减弱的心肌区域。
与其他软件工具不同，HeAT支持Cine-MR和DE-MR的轮廓信息结合、高分辨率局部分析以及患者间/患者内比较。HeAT能够对复杂的心脏图像数据进行独立于观察者的评估。在进一步研究中使用HeAT可增进对左心室重构的理解。
