An integrated program for 2-D and 3-D analysis of heart wall motion from magnetic resonance imaging

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with magnetization tagging provides a non invasive tomographic imaging method for the evaluation of cardiac function. We have developed an integrated set of programs for the analysis and display of heart wall motion from cardiac MRI. Cardiac wall contours and tag positions can be extracted manually or semiautomatically from the images. The contours can be stacked to calculate global function variables, or the relative motion of the tags in the images can be used to calculate the regional 2-D strain. Tag data from orthogonal sets of images can be combined to calculate regional 3-D strain. Display options include static or dynamic displays of scalar and vector or tensor quantities. This integrated program provides a useful means to extract and display cardiac function data from tagged MRI.