Estimation of myocardium deformation by simultaneous use of tagged and untagged gated cardiac MRI

In this manuscript we describe a method to estimate myocardium deformation that simultaneously uses both tagged and untagged cardiac-gated MRI image sequences. We show that this approach is more accurate and robust than traditional methods that usually use only tagged cardiac-gated MRI data. Estimation of the deformation field is based on a deformable mesh model (DMM) that incorporates a myocardium surface model. The DMM is well suited for motion tracking and analysis of organs undergoing non-rigid deformation. Previously, we successfully utilized a DMM for heart motion tracking in cardiac SPECT and tagged MRI. Promising preliminary results are presented.