Validation study of a semi-automated program for quantification of atherosclerotic burden.

Practical implementation of cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) for the noninvasive screening of atherosclerosis is limited by inter-and intra-observer variability and labor intensity of morphometric analysis by manual planimetry (MANU). We assessed the hypothesis that a semi-automated quantification program (AUTO) for CMR would be faster and more accurate than MANU without loss of reliability. In the analysis of carotid atherosclerosis in asymptomatic hypercholesterolemic patients (n = 17), AUTO was superior to MANU in speed and histopathologic correlation without significant differences in inter-and intra-observer variability. Implementation of AUTO may facilitate CMR for the screening of the burden of atherosclerotic disease.