Cardiovascular magnetic resonance-derived left ventricular hemodynamic force among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Motivation: Cardiovascular involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients is common and serious; early and accurate identification of the cardiac dysfunction is crucial. Goal(s): Our goal was to investigate the potential role of hemodynamic force (HDF) in early recognizing impaired cardiac function in SLE. Approach: Left ventricular (LV) HDF and strain analysis were performed based on long-axis cine imaging using feature-tracking in 36 SLE patients and 34 healthy volunteers. Results: The force ratio between transverse and longitudinal direction was larger in SLE patients with no difference of strain analysis, indicating that the orientation of HDF altered in LV. Impact: This study demonstrated that HDF analysis can early detect systolic dysfunction in SLE in advance of significant decrease of LV EF, which may contribute to the early diagnosis of cardiac involvement and prognosis improvement of patients.