Measurement of Cardiac Chamber Volumes by Cine Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Cardiac chamber volumes (both atria and ventricles) in 19 healthy volunteers were measured noninvasively by cine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). First, cardiac localization was determined from the coronal image by 0.5-T superconducting magnetic imager. Then, transaxial ECG gated multislice spin echo images were obtained from the bottom to the top of the heart. In the last step, cine MRI was performed at each level of all these transaxial spin echo MR images involving the heart. Each cardiac chamber volume at the same phase was calculated by adding chamber areas in each anatomic section multiplied by slice thickness. Left ventricular (LV) end-diastolic volume (EDV) 132.0 +/- 26.9 mL) and LV end-systolic volume (ESV) (47.8 +/- 13.9 mL) were smaller than right ventricular (RV) EDV (141.1 +/- 24.8 mL) and RVESV (57.0 +/- 12.6 mL), respectively (p < 0.01). LV stroke volume (84.3 +/- 17.9 mL) was equivalent to RV stroke volume (84.2 +/- 17.6 mL) (r = 0.91, p < 0.01). Left atrial (LA) and right atrial (RA) maximal volumes were 75.8 +/- 15.4 mL and 84.4 +/- 18.7 mL, respectively. LA minimal volume (37.5 +/- 10.7 mL) was smaller than RA minimal volume (47.8 +/- 12.2 mL). These values measured by cine MRI are satisfactory and cine MRI will be a useful method of determining cardiac chamber volumes, especially atrial volumes.