Abstract

• The purpose of this study is to determine the utility of cardiac cine-MRI in the measurement of left ventricular volume and cardiac output. The results of cardiac cine-MRI were compared with those obtained by 2-dimensional echocardiography in 19 normal pediatric subjects.
  The results are as follows:
  1) The mean values of the parameters(end-diastolic volume, end-systolic volume, ejection fraction, stroke volume, stroke index, cardiac output, and cardiac index) which were calculated by cardiac cine-MRI, demonstrated excellent agreement with the results of 2-dimensional echocardiography(p>0.05).
  2) Significant linear correlation was made when each parameter was compared between 2-dimensional echocardiography and cardiac cine-MRI(p<0.05).
  3) End-diastolic and end-systolic volume which were estimated by 2-dimensional echocardiography and cardiac cine-MRI, were significantly increased according to increasing age or body weight(p<0.05).
  The results of the study indicate that cardiac cine-MRI is likely to become a useful diagnostic modality to evaluate anatomic abnormalities in congenital and acquired cardiac diseases and to measure left ventricular volume and cardiac functions.