Assessment of global right ventricular function on 64-MDCT compared with MRI

OBJECTIVE. The aim of this study was to compare ECG-gated 64-MDCT with MRI for the assessment of global right ventricular ( RV) function from coronary CT angiography data. SUBJECTS AND METHODs. Thirty-eight patients ( 25 men, 13 women; mean age +/- SD, 55.0 +/- 8.8 years) with suspected coronary artery disease underwent contrast-enhanced 64-MDCT ( 64 x 0.6 mm, 120 kV, 770 mAs(eff)) and 1.5-T MRI ( balanced fast-field echo; TR/TE, 3.3/1.6; flip angle, 60; 50 phases). Double oblique short-axis MDCT and MR images were used for further analysis. End-diastolic volume (EDV), end-systolic volume (ESV), stroke volume (SV), and ejection fraction (EF) were computed from manually drawn endocardial contours of the right ventricle. For statistical analysis, repeated-measures analysis of variance and Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated. Bland-Altman plots were computed. RESULTS. In general, RV volumes calculated from 64-MDCT agreed well with those calculated from MRI. The mean EF (+/- SD) calculated from MDCT and MRI was 51.0% +/- 7.8% and 51.4% +/- 7.3%, respectively. An excellent correlation was observed for EDV (r=0.99), ESV (r=0.98), SV (r=0.98), and EF (r=0.97). Bland-Altman plots showed no systematic variation between MDCT and MRI data. No statistically significant differences (p <= 0.05) between the techniques were found. CONCLUSION. Although contrast injection is optimized for visualization of the coronary arteries, retrospectively ECG-gated 64-MDCT permits reliable assessment of global RV function.