A New Triangulated Surface Approach to Measuring Apex Curvature from Cine MRI in Patients with Mitral Regurgitation

Chun Guo Schiros¹, Steven G. Lloyd², Himanshu Gupta², Louis J. Dell'Italia², Thomas S. Denney Jr.

A new surface modeling technique based on triangulated surface was presented to model all levels of the left ventricle including apex. A Bspline surface model based on prolate spheroidal coordinate system was used as a gold standard for validation. Correlation analysis and Bland-Altman plots on circumferential curvatures show the triangulated surface method has good agreement with the gold standard at base and near apex. Comparison of apex maximum curvatures measured by the triangulated surface in 40 normals and 21 patients with moderate chronic, compensated mitral regurgitation (MR) show apex maximum curvatures in MR hearts are significantly lower than in normals.