Inter-study reproducibility of cardiovascular magnetic resonance-derived hemodynamic force assessments

AbstractCardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR)-derived hemodynamic force (HDF) analyses have been introduced recently enabling more in-depth cardiac function evaluation. Inter-study reproducibility is important for a widespread clinical use but has not been quantified for this novel CMR post-processing tool yet. Serial CMR imaging was performed in 11 healthy participants in a median interval of 63 days (range 49–87). HDF assessment included left ventricular (LV) longitudinal, systolic peak and impulse, systolic/diastolic transition, diastolic deceleration as well as atrial thrust acceleration forces. Inter-study reproducibility and study sample sizes required to demonstrate 10%, 15% or 20% relative changes of HDF measurements were calculated. In addition, intra- and inter-observer analyses were performed. Intra- and inter-observer reproducibility was excellent for all HDF parameters according to intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) values (> 0.80 for all). Inter-study reproducibility of all HDF parameters was excellent (ICC ≥ 0.80 for all) with systolic parameters showing lower coeffients of variation (CoV) than diastolic measurements (CoV 15.2% for systolic impulse vs. CoV 30.9% for atrial thrust). Calculated sample sizes to detect relative changes ranged from n = 12 for the detection of a 20% relative change in systolic impulse to n = 200 for the detection of 10% relative change in atrial thrust. Overall inter-study reproducibility of CMR-derived HDF assessments was sufficient with systolic HDF measurements showing lower inter-study variation than diastolic HDF analyses.