Principles for the Study of Heart Dynamics with Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) allows the display of anatomical heart structures at a temporal resolution in the magnitude of 20 ms. Several pictures may be taken in one scanning process or with consecutive measurements at varying trigger delay times. By comparison of the positions of certain myocardial regions at certain times, the assessment of ventricular motion in all heart phases is possible. The specificity for the identification of any region of the myocardium in the three-dimensional space is high. If the signal phases rather than the amplitudes are reconstructed into an image, motion effects at any trigger delay can be visualized directly on the basis of single scans and may be further analyzed.