Evaluation of left ventricular diastolic function by fractional area change using cine cardiovascular magnetic resonance: a feasibility study

BACKGROUND: Evaluation of left ventricular (LV) diastolic function is essential for the management of heart failure. We verified whether LV diastolic function could be evaluated by measuring the fractional area change (FAC) using cine cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR). METHODS: We collected clinical data from 59 patients who underwent echocardiography and cine CMR. Normal, impaired relaxation, pseudonormal, and restrictive LV filling were observed in 15, 28, 11, and 5 patients, respectively. We calculated FAC during the first 30% of diastole (diastolic-index%) in the short-axis view, by tracing the contours on only three MR cine images. RESULTS: The diastolic index was significantly lower (p < 0.0001) in patients with impaired relaxation (32.4 ± 7.5), pseudonormal filling (25.4 ± 5.6), and restrictive filling (9.5 ± 1.5) compared to those with normal diastolic function (67.7 ± 10.8), and the index decreased significantly with worsening of diastolic dysfunction. The diastolic index correlated positively with early diastolic mitral annular velocity measured by tissue Doppler imaging (r = 0.75, p < 0.0001), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Measurement of FAC can be useful for the evaluation of LV diastolic function using cine CMR.