Quantitative comparison of human myocardial fiber orientations derived from DTI and polarized light imaging

• Published in: Physics in medicine & biology 2018-10, Vol.63 (21), p.215003-215003
• Main Authors: Yang, Feng, Zhu, Yue-Min, Michalowicz, Gabrielle, Jouk, Pierre-Simon, Fanton, Laurent, Viallon, Magalie, Clarysse, Patrick, Croisille, Pierre, Usson, Yves
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bioengineering; cardiac fiber orientation; diffusion tensor imaging; Imaging; Life Sciences; polarized light imaging; validation
• ISSN: 0031-9155; 1361-6560; 1361-6560
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6560/aae514

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a non-invasive technique used to obtain the 3D fiber structure of whole human hearts, for both in vivo and ex vivo cases. However, by essence, DTI does not measure directly the orientations of myocardial fibers. In contrast, polarized light imaging (PLI) allows for physical measurements of fiber orientations, but only for ex vivo case. This work aims at quantitatively comparing the myocardial fiber orientations of whole human hearts obtained from cardiac DTI with those measured by PLI. Whole human neonatal and infant hearts were first imaged using DTI. The same whole hearts were then imaged using PLI. After DTI and PLI data are registered, the orientations of fibers from the two imaging modalities were finally quantitatively compared. The results show that DTI and PLI have similar variation patterns of elevation and azimuth angles, with some differences in transmural elevation angle range. DTI itself induces an underestimation of the range of transmural elevation angles by a factor of about 25° at the basal and equatorial slices and the reduction of spatial resolution further decreases this range. PLI data exhibit a 15°  ±  5° (P