Mitral valve annular velocity measurements derived from cine MRI: validation against Doppler echocardiography

Assessment of mitral annular tissue velocity plays an essential role in the evaluation of diastolic dysfunction. We have previously shown that mitral annular velocities can be derived from standard four-chamber cine SSFP images by automatically detecting and tracking the mitral valve insertion points [1]. However, this method has not been validated against tissue Doppler echocardiography, the standard clinical method for evaluating diastolic function. The objective of this study was to assess the accuracy of early and late diastolic (e’ and a’) mitral annular velocities derived from high temporal resolution SSFP cine by correlating with tissue Doppler echocardiography.