Computerized measurement of myocardial infarct size on contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance images

Purpose: To validate a computer algorithm for measuring myocardial infarct size on gadolinium enhanced MR images. The results of computer infarct sizing are studied on phase-sensitive and magnitude imaging against a histopathology reference. Materials and Methods: Validations were performed in 9 canine myocardial infarctions determined by triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC). The algorithm analyzed the pixel intensity distribution within manually traced myocardial regions. Pixels darker than an automatically determined threshold were first excluded from further analysis. Selected image features were used to remove false positive regions. A threshold 50% between bright and dark regions was then used to minimize partial volume errors. Post-processing steps were applied to identify microvascular obstruction. Both phase sensitive and magnitude reconstructed MR images were measured by the computer algorithm in units of % of the left ventricle (LV) infarction and compared to TTC. Results: Correlations of MR and TTC infarct size were 0.96 for both phase sensitive and magnitude imaging. Bland Altman analysis showed no consistent bias as a function of infarct size. The average error of computer infarct sizing was less than 2% of the LV for both reconstructions. Fixed intensity thresholding was less accurate compared to the computer algorithm. Conclusions: MR can accurately depict myocardial infarction. The proposed computer algorithm accurately measures infarct size on contrast-enhanced MR images against the histopathology reference. It is effective for both phase-sensitive and magnitude imaging.