Interventricular Dyssynchrony Using Tagging Magnetic Resonance Imaging Predicts Right Ventricular Dysfunction in Adult Congenital Heart Disease.

Purpose. Right ventricular (RV) failure and ventricular dyssynchrony are strong determinants of prognosis in patients with adult congenital heart disease (ACHD). The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between interventricular dyssynchrony (IVD) using cine-tagged magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and RV dysfunction in ACHD patients. Materials and Methods. Sixty-seven patients with ACHD (38 with repaired tetralogy of Fallot; 22 with atrial septal defect; seven with ventricular septal defect) underwent tagging MRI. Time curves of myocardial circumferential strains for RV and left ventricular (LV) free walls were delivered from short-axis cine-tagging images. Contraction delay between RV and LV free walls was computed by cross-correlation analysis of the two strain time curves and was defined as the IVD time (msec). Results. IVD was significantly greater for patients with RV ejection fraction (RVEF) <40% (116 +/- 58 msec) than for patients with RVEF >= 40% (65 +/- 54 msec) and was significantly greater for patients with RV systolic pressure >= 40 mm Hg (112 +/- 59 msec) than for patients with RV systolic pressure <40 mm Hg (49 +/- 28 msec). Receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed optimal IVD thresholds for detecting patients with RVEF <40% with C-statistics of 0.76 and patients with RV systolic pressure >= 40 mm Hg with C-statistics of 0.81. Conclusion. Quantification of IVD was possible using RV and LV strains derived from tagging MRI. IVD, represented as the time difference between LV and RV contractions, correlates with RV dysfunction. IVD may thus offer an indicator for RV failure in ACHD.