Biventricular and Hemodynamic Assessment under Multi-stage Exercise using Real-time CMR

A comprehensive exercise stress cardiovascular MRI (Ex-CMR) was performed in twelve healthy subjects. Biventricular quantification was performed from real-time cine, while hemodynamic parameters in the ascending aorta and main pulmonary artery were estimated using real-time flow. The acquisition process was repeated two to three times at increasing exercise intensities. The highly accelerated (R = 7-8 for cine and R = 16 for flow) real-time data were reconstructed inline using Gadgetron-based compressed sensing reconstruction. In agreement with the literature, the ejection fraction and cardiac output correlated positively with exercise intensity.