Cardiac extracellular volume is a quantitative parameter that helps in the diagnosis of several heart diseases. Traditionally, clinicians have measured extracellular volume on conventional MRI and CT using a manual technique that is time-consuming and often imprecise, Dr. Mohamed Nouri from Henri Mondor University Hospital told AuntMinnie.com.
Seeking to improve the efficiency of measuring extracellular volume, Nouri and colleagues developed software capable of automatically performing this task on 3D CT scans of the heart. They validated the software on the cases of dozens of patients with cardiac amyloidosis who underwent noncontrast and contrast-enhanced cardiac CT.
The software performed 3D segmentation of the cardiac CT scans and automatically measured the extracellular volumes of every patient. The segmentation process took approximately 20 seconds.
The researchers found that the automated and manual extracellular volume measurements correlated very well, with a coefficient of determination of 0.8, suggesting that the technique is feasible for testing in a broader patient cohort.
"The software allows a global and segmented extracellular volume measurement and provides a bull's-eye representation of the measurements performed and will allow this parameter to be integrated into daily practice," Nouri said.
