Right Ventricular Diastolic Function Evaluation in Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Although few studies demonstrated the ability of MRI dynamic anatomical sequences to assess right ventricular (RV) diastolic function, no data are available for velocity-encoded MRI (VE-MRI). Accordingly, our aim was to evaluate RV diastolic function from VE-MRI, as compared to reference Doppler echocardiography. We studied 109 healthy individuals (67 men, age: 42 +/- 15 years) who underwent RV Doppler echocardiography and MRI on the same day. VE-MRI images were analyzed using custom software, providing: tricuspid flow early peak velocity (E, cm/s) and flow-rate (Ef, ml/s), atrial peak velocity (A, cm/s) and flow-rate (Af, ml/s), longitudinal myocardial early peak velocity (E). Same velocity parameters were extracted from Doppler echocardiography (E, A, E/A, E', E/E). Despite the fair associations between MRI and echocardiographic indices, the highest correlation with age was obtained for MRI flow-rate ratio Ef/Af (r = 0.60). Associations with age for velocity ratios (E/A) were equivalent for MRI and echocardiography (r = 0.41). Automatically extracted PC-MRI tricuspid inflow parameters were strongly related to age. These associations were comparable to echocardiography for maximal velocities ratio and were stronger when considering peak flow-rates ratio.