Value of additional strain analysis with feature tracking in dobutamine stress cardiovascular magnetic resonance for detecting coronary artery disease

Dobutamine stress cardiovascular magnetic resonance (DS-CMR) has been established for the detection of coronary artery disease (CAD). The novel technique feature tracking (FT) analyses left ventricular circumferential strain (Ecc) thus offering detailed information about myocardial deformation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate FT based Ecc for the detection of myocardial ischemia during DS-CMR.

A total of 25 patients (18 males; mean age 64 ± 10 years) with suspected or known CAD underwent a standardized high-dose DS-CMR protocol at 1.5 T. For FT analysis cine short axis (SAX) views (apical, medial, basal) at rest and during maximum dobutamine stress were used. None of the patients had wall motion abnormalities (WMAs) or impaired left ventricular function at rest or scar tissue. For analysis of Ecc the three SAX planes were divided into 16 segments (n = 400 segments). During stress 15 patients (34 segments) developed WMAs as assessed by visual analysis. All patients underwent x-ray coronary angiography for clinical reasons which served as the reference standard. Patients without WMAs during DS-CMR and exclusion of stenotic CAD were defined as normal (10 patients, 160 segments). In patients with significant CAD segments that were supplied by a vessel of >70% narrowing were defined as stenotic (n = 64). The remaining segments in patients with significant CAD were considered as remote (n = 176).

At rest no differences in Ecc were observed between normal, stenotic and remote segments. High-dose dobutamine stress revealed highly significant differences between Ecc of normal and stenotic segments (p < 0.001), as well as between remote and stenotic segments (p < 0.001). The same observation took place for the absolute change of Ecc (p < 0.001 and p = 0.01). ROC analysis of Ecc during maximum DS-CMR differentiated normal from stenotic segments with a sensitivity of 75% and specificity of 67% using a cutoff -33.2% with an area under the curve of 0.78. Additional analysis of intermediate-dose dobutamine also showed a significant difference between normal and stenotic segments (p = 0.001).

FT based analysis of Ecc during intermediate- and high-dose DS-CMR was feasible and differentiated between stenotic, remote and normal segments. Quantitative assessment of Ecc with FT may improve the diagnostic accuracy of DS-CMR for detection of ischemia.