Comparison of Myocardial Scar Geometries from 2D and 3D LGE-MRI

Myocardial scar geometry may influence the sensitivity of predicting risk for ventricular tachycardia (VT) using computational models of the heart. This study aims to compare the differences in reconstructed geometry of scar generated using two-dimensional (2D) versus three-dimensional (3D) late gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance (LGE-MR) images. We used a retrospectively-acquired dataset of 17 patients with myocardial scar who underwent both 2D and 3D LGE-MR imaging. We segmented the scar manually in both 2D and 3D LGE-MRI using a multi-planar image processing software. We then reconstructed the 2D scar segmentation boundaries from 2D LGE-MRI to 3D surfaces using a LogOdds-based interpolation method. Finally, we assessed the 3D models of scar in both 3D and 2D-reconstructed techniques using several shape and volume metrics such as, fractal dimensions, number of connected components, mean scar volume, and normalized scar volume. The higher fractal dimension resulted for 3D may indicate that the 3D LGE-MRI produces a more complex surface geometry by better capturing the intact geometry of the scar. The 2D LGE-MRI produced a larger normalized scar volume (19.48 +/- 10 %) than the 3D LGE-MRI (10.92 +/- 7.12 %). We also provided a statistical analysis on the scar volume differences acquired from 2D and 3D LGE-MRI.