Quantification of left atrial fibrosis in cardiac MRI: a multi-method, multi-vendor comparison study

Motivation: The impact of vendors and threshold methods on quantification of LA fibrosis is not well studied. Goal(s): To evaluate the inter-vendor and inter-threshold impact on LA fibrosis quantification. Approach: Both packages of Medis and CVI42 ADAS were used to calculate LA fibrosis based on the image IIR 1.2-method and 2 SD above the mean blood pool signal intensity of LA. Results: The both post-processing software packages of Medis and CVI42 ADAS have a good agreement and correlation to quantify LA fibrosis if an identical quantification method was used. However, LA fibrotic burden is influenced by used quantification methods. Impact: LA fibrotic burden quantified with cardiac MRI is influenced by used quantification methods, but don’t dependent on vendors. The use of Utah stages by other centers needs further validation when different analysis methods applied.