Quantitative differences in the heart habitus between breath-hold and free-breathing states, measured using a 3D survey in cardiac patients

Motivation: Quantitative understanding of the differences in the heart’s habitus (position, orientation and size) between free-breathing (FB) and breath-hold (BH) mode of cardiac MR imaging (CMR) is lacking. Goal(s): To quantitatively measure the differences in the heart’s position, orientation and size between free-breathing and breath-hold mode in cardiac patientsApproach: Used an accelerated 3D GRE survey, acquired in BH (cardiac gated) and FB modes (cardiac and respiratory gated) in a large cohort of cardiac patients and quantified the location, orientation and size differences. Results: We find that quantitatively heart’s habitus differs significantly, in all three factors, between the two modes of imaging. Impact: We have, for the first time, quantified the extent to which the heart’s habitus (position, orientation and size) changes between breath-hold and free-breathing modes of Cardiac MRI (CMR). CMRI planning, whether manual or AI based, needs to account for this.