The reproducibility of left ventricular volume and mass measurements: a comparison between dual-inversion-recovery black-blood sequence and SSFP.

The aim of this study was to compare a dual-inversion-recovery black-blood (BB) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequence with steady-state free precession (SSFP) for the assessment of left ventricular parameters. The improved endocardial border definition seen with SSFP was not observed at the epicardial border. Improvements in segmentation at the left ventricular epicardial border have been observed with this black-blood sequence. Left ventricular (LV) mass and LV end-diastolic volume (EDV) measurements as well as inter-observer and intra-observer variability were compared between images acquired with a dual inversion BB and SSFP sequence. The mean+/-1 standard deviation (SD) for LV EDV was 178.3+/-52.7 ml measured with SSFP and 158.8+/-62.2 ml with BB. This difference was not statistically significant (p=0.22). For SSFP, the mean value of LV mass was 124.0+/-27.0 g and 147.5+/-37.4 g for BB, a statistically significant difference (p<0.0001). The dual-inversion-recovery BB imaging showed improved reproducibility for LV mass measurements compared with SSFP and improved spatial resolution. For studies requiring LV mass measurements, the dual-inversion-recovery BB sequence offers improved spatial resolution and improved reproducibility to SSFP.