Fusion of 3D echocardiographic and cardiac magnetic resonance volumes

Evaluating functional and anatomical information in a side by side manner, based on 3D echocardiography (3D echo) and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) is a complex task mainly because of inaccuracies in defining myocardial segments and spatio-temporal registration errors across different modalities. The aim of the study was to develop a method for fusing and visualizing 3D echo and CMR volumes and to demonstrate its applicability to patient data. Results: Five subjects with myocardial infarction have been selected for this study. All patients underwent 3D echo and CMR short- long-axis cine and late-gadolinium enhanced imaging the same day. The registration process was successful in all cases. The visual relationship between myocardial scar identified by LE and low end-systolic segmental strain values obtained based on 3D echo could be visually established. Conclusion: A novel method for fusing and visualizing 3D echo and CMR (cine and late-enhancement) volumes has been developed. The method provides complementary information that is not available by either modality alone, useful in the context of same day or longitudinal studies. A direct spatial relationship between tissue characterization and functional information is established which has the potential of enabling more accurate myocardial viability assessment and ischemia diagnosis.