Three-directional Myocardial Phase-Contrast Tissue Velocity MR Imaging with Navigator-Echo Gating: In Vivo and in Vitro Study

The study protocol was HIPAA compliant and institutional review board approved. Informed consent was obtained from all participants. The purpose of the study was to prospectively validate the capability of navigator-echo-gated phase-contrast magnetic resonance (MR) imaging for measurement of myocardial velocities in a phantom and to prospectively use the phase-contrast MR sequence to measure three-directional velocity in the myocardium in vivo in volunteers and in patients scheduled for cardiac resynchronization therapy. An excellent correlation between the measured velocity and the true phantom motion (R = 0.90 for longitudinal velocity, R = 0.93 for circumferential velocity) was observed. Myocardial velocities were successfully measured in 17 healthy volunteers (11 male, six female; mean age, 27.5 years +/- 6.5 standard deviation) and 28 patients with heart failure (18 male, 10 female; mean age, 63.9 years +/- 15.0). Velocity values were significantly lower in the patients than in the volunteers. The time to peak velocity in the lateral wall of the patients, as compared with that in the volunteers, was delayed. Phase-contrast MR imaging can be combined with navigator-echo gating to measure three-directional myocardial tissue velocities in vivo.