Quantification of Myocardial Strain Using Harp MRI

In this study the HARP MRI technique is adapted in order to calculate velocity fields and strain maps throughout the cardiac cycle. The implications of HARP principles are investigated step by step and detailed analysis is given for various parameters affecting the quality and accuracy of the results. The proposed technique was implemented with CSPAMM tagged images and HARP for the rapid calculation of deformation and strain tensors. Velocity fields are estimated from both CSPAMM and SPAMM images in order to validate whether it is possible to assess myocardial motion through out the whole cardiac cycle. It has been demonstrated that CSPAMM images are more appropriate in terms of HARP filtering and resistant to tag fading. Vector de-noising and restoration were applied to eliminate noise and improve the effectiveness of the current study. Results were compared with both a normal volunteer and a patient in order to validate the potential value of this technique in a clinical environment. Finally, a flexible research tool to visualize and process both anatomical and functional MR images has been developed to fulfil these requirements by using Visual C++ /MFC.