Characterization of normal regional myocardial function by MRI cardiac tagging

Purpose The aim of this study was to establish reference values for segmental myocardial strain measured by magnetic resonance (MR) cardiac tagging in order to characterize the regional function of the heart. Material and Methods We characterized the left ventricular (LV) systolic deformation in 39 subjects (26 women and 13 men, age 58.8 ± 11.6 years) whose cardiological study had not revealed any significant abnormality. The deformation was measured from MR-tagged (Siemens 1.5T MR) images using an algorithm based on sine wave modeling. Circumferential and radial peak systolic strain values along with the torsion angle and circumferential-longitudinal (CL) shear were determined in 16 LV seg…