TY - JOUR
T1 - High-Resolution Maps of Left Atrial Displacements and Strains Estimated with 3D Cine MRI using Online Learning Neural Networks
AU - Galazis, Christoforos
AU - Shepperd, Samuel
AU - Brouwer, Emma J.P.
AU - Queirós, Sandro
AU - Alskaf, Ebraham
AU - Anjari, Mustafa
AU - Chiribiri, Amedeo
AU - Lee, Jack
AU - Bharath, Anil A.
AU - Varela, Marta
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. All rights reserved.
PY - 2025
Y1 - 2025
N2 - The functional analysis of the left atrium (LA) is important for evaluating cardiac health and understanding diseases like atrial fibrillation. Cine MRI is ideally placed for the detailed 3D characterization of LA motion and deformation but is lacking appropriate acquisition and analysis tools. Here, we propose tools for the Analysis of Left Atrial Displacements and DeformatIons using online learning neural Networks (Aladdin) and present a technical feasibility study on how Aladdin can characterize 3D LA function globally and regionally. Aladdin includes an online segmentation and image registration network, and a strain calculation pipeline tailored to the LA. We create maps of LA Displacement Vector Field (DVF) magnitude and LA principal strain values from images of 10 healthy volunteers and 8 patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD), of which 2 had large left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) impairment. We additionally create an atlas of these biomarkers using the data from the healthy volunteers. Results showed that Aladdin can accurately track the LA wall across the cardiac cycle and characterize its motion and deformation. Global LA function markers assessed with Aladdin agree well with estimates from 2D Cine MRI. A more marked active contraction phase was observed in the healthy cohort, while the CVD LVEF↓ group showed overall reduced LA function. Aladdin is uniquely able to identify LA regions with abnormal deformation metrics that may indicate focal pathology. We expect Aladdin to have important clinical applications as it can non-invasively characterize atrial pathophysiology. All source code and data are available at: https://github.com/cgalaz0 1/aladdin_cmr_la.
AB - The functional analysis of the left atrium (LA) is important for evaluating cardiac health and understanding diseases like atrial fibrillation. Cine MRI is ideally placed for the detailed 3D characterization of LA motion and deformation but is lacking appropriate acquisition and analysis tools. Here, we propose tools for the Analysis of Left Atrial Displacements and DeformatIons using online learning neural Networks (Aladdin) and present a technical feasibility study on how Aladdin can characterize 3D LA function globally and regionally. Aladdin includes an online segmentation and image registration network, and a strain calculation pipeline tailored to the LA. We create maps of LA Displacement Vector Field (DVF) magnitude and LA principal strain values from images of 10 healthy volunteers and 8 patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD), of which 2 had large left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) impairment. We additionally create an atlas of these biomarkers using the data from the healthy volunteers. Results showed that Aladdin can accurately track the LA wall across the cardiac cycle and characterize its motion and deformation. Global LA function markers assessed with Aladdin agree well with estimates from 2D Cine MRI. A more marked active contraction phase was observed in the healthy cohort, while the CVD LVEF↓ group showed overall reduced LA function. Aladdin is uniquely able to identify LA regions with abnormal deformation metrics that may indicate focal pathology. We expect Aladdin to have important clinical applications as it can non-invasively characterize atrial pathophysiology. All source code and data are available at: https://github.com/cgalaz0 1/aladdin_cmr_la.
KW - Atlas of the Left Atrium
KW - Atrial Cine MRI
KW - Image Registration Neural Network
KW - Left Atrial Displacements
KW - Left Atrial Function
KW - Left Atrial Mechanics
KW - Left Atrial Strains
KW - Online Learning
KW - Segmentation Neural Network
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85214644260&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/TMI.2025.3526364
DO - 10.1109/TMI.2025.3526364
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85214644260
SN - 0278-0062
JO - IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging
JF - IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging
ER -