Reproducibility of left ventricular mass measurement using a half-Fourier black-blood single-shot fast spin-echo sequence within a single breath hold: comparison with a conventional multiple breath-hold segmented gradient echo technique in patients

Purpose: To compare the reproducibility of left ventricular (LV) mass measurements using a black-blood half-Fourier single-shot fast spin-echo (SSFSE) and a segmented gradient echo magnetic resonance (MR) pulse sequence.

Material and methods: Breath-hold SSFSE and segmented gradient echo cardiac MR examinations were performed twice in 32 patients and manual detection of the LV endocardium and epicardium was applied by two blinded reviewers. The SSFSE pulse sequence allowed whole-heart coverage in a single breath hold, while multiple breath holds were required using the segmented gradient echo sequence. Spatial presaturation slabs were used with the SSFSE pulse sequence to reduce the field of view (FOV) and thereby achieve higher spatial resolution.

Results: Intraclass correlation coefficients were higher with the SSFSE pulse sequence than with the segmented gradient echo pulse sequence: intraobserver reproducibility reached 0.999 vs. 0.991; interobserver reproducibility: 0.997 vs. 0.981; and interstudy reproducibility: 0.998 vs. 0.936. These higher levels of reproducibility were confirmed on Bland and Altman plots.

Conclusion: LV mass measurements can be assessed more reproducibly with the single breath-hold SSFSE technique than with the standard multiple breath-hold segmented gradient echo method.