Assessment of regional early diastolic function using cine magnetic resonance imaging in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

In patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), we conducted cine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies in which our objectives were to quantify the regional early diastolic function of the left ventricle and to evaluate the relationship between regional diastolic function and hypertrophy. Short-axis images of the left ventricle were recorded by cine MRI in 8 control patients and 24 patients with HCM. The images were then divided into 10 blocks to evaluate regional early diastolic function. The regional wall-thickness-time curve, the radius-time curve, and their first- derivative curves were computed for each of the 10 blocks. There was no difference between the time-to-peak-radius-increasing ratio and the time-to- peak-wall-thickness-thinning ratio in the 10 blocks in the control patients. These 2 parameters in the patients with HCM were significantly longer than those in the control patients. There was also a significant linear correlation between the time-to-peak-wall-thickness-thinning ratio and regional wall thickness. Cine MRI was useful for evaluating regional early diastolic function, which is apparently related to regional hypertrophy, in patients with HCM.