Assessing strain in arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy using cine DENSE MRI

The kinematics of the right ventricle (RV) are not well understood due to its thin wall and asymmetric geometry. Cine displacement encoding with stimulated echoes (cine DENSE), which measures intramyocardial displacement and strain, has been adapted for RV analysis with encouraging preliminary results in normal subjects. This preliminary study evaluates cine DENSE MRI for detecting decreased myocardial strain in arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC). ARVC is a unique heart muscle disease affecting predominantly the RV. The pathological hallmark of fibro-fatty replacement of the myocardium may result in localised aneurysms and wall motion abnormalities, detectable by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging