Feasibility and comparison of left ventricular ejection flow acceleration recorded by cardiac magnetic resonance in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy: a case-control study

Background Intra-ventricular pressure gradient along the direction of the outflow tract is generated by the impulse response of the myocardial contraction. This spatial pressure gradient, derived from the maximal acceleration estimates within flow along the left ventricular out flow tract (LVOT), has been validated in vitro by using MRI and was found strongly related to the inotropic state of the LV as demonstrated in animal and human echocardiographic studies. This acceleration may be less dependent on load conditions than others LV systolic function parameters, especially LV ejection fraction (LVEF). The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of LV ejection flow acceleration estimated by spatial and temporal derivative of velocities recorded by cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) using phase contrast sequence, and to compare the acceleration values to LVEF in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and in control subjects.