Norman Aiad^1,2,3,7, Mark V. Sherrid^1,7, Adam J. Small¹, Youssef Elnabawi^1,7, Jodi Feinberg¹, Leon Axel^1,4, Ralph Mosca⁵, T. K. Susheel Kumar⁵, Michael Argilla⁶, Dan G. Halpern^1,7,*

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.18, No.3, pp. 267-277, 2023, DOI:10.32604/chd.2023.025853

Abstract Introduction: We sought to investigate whether the development of sub-pulmonic systolic anterior motion (SAM) may be inherent to the anatomy of the the mitral valve (MV) or affected by external factors, such as a dilated right ventricle or chest abnormalities in d-looped transposition of the great arteries post atrial switch operation (d-TGA/AtS). Methods: Analysis was performed of clinical and cardiac imaging studies acquired on 19 adult patients with d-TGA/AtS (age 42 ± 6 years old, 56% male) between 2015–2019. Echocardiography data included mitral apparatus anatomy, and CT/MRI data included biventricular dimensions, function, and Haller index (HI) for pectus deformity. Results:… More >

Jun Liu¹, Geng Yuan², Changdi Yang², Houbing Song³, Liang Luo^4,*

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.135, No.2, pp. 1571-1587, 2023, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2022.023195

Abstract The interpretability of deep learning models has emerged as a compelling area in artificial intelligence research. The safety criteria for medical imaging are highly stringent, and models are required for an explanation. However, existing convolutional neural network solutions for left ventricular segmentation are viewed in terms of inputs and outputs. Thus, the interpretability of CNNs has come into the spotlight. Since medical imaging data are limited, many methods to fine-tune medical imaging models that are popular in transfer models have been built using massive public ImageNet datasets by the transfer learning method. Unfortunately, this generates many unreliable parameters and makes… More >

Zakarya Farea Shaaf^1,*, Muhammad Mahadi Abdul Jamil¹, Radzi Ambar¹, Ahmed Abdu Alattab^2,3, Anwar Ali Yahya^3,4, Yousef Asiri⁴

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.74, No.1, pp. 1819-1835, 2023, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2023.031900

Abstract The automatic localization of the left ventricle (LV) in short-axis magnetic resonance (MR) images is a required step to process cardiac images using convolutional neural networks for the extraction of a region of interest (ROI). The precise extraction of the LV’s ROI from cardiac MRI images is crucial for detecting heart disorders via cardiac segmentation or registration. Nevertheless, this task appears to be intricate due to the diversities in the size and shape of the LV and the scattering of surrounding tissues across different slices. Thus, this study proposed a region-based convolutional network (Faster R-CNN) for the LV localization from… More >

Pengzhu Li, Martina Bačová, Robert Dalla-Pozza, Nikolaus Alexander Haas, Felix Sebastian Oberhoffer^*

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.17, No.2, pp. 129-141, 2022, DOI:10.32604/CHD.2022.018300

Abstract Turner syndrome (TS) is a rare disorder affecting 25–50 in 100000 female newborns. Bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) is assumed to be the most common congenital heart defect (CHD) in TS. In literature, reported BAV prevalence in TS ranges between 14% and 34%. The specific BAV prevalence in TS is still unknown. The aim of this study was to give a more precise estimation of BAV prevalence in TS by conducting a meta-analysis of TS-studies, which detected BAV by either cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or cardiac computed tomography (CT). We searched PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases to… More >

Elena Panaioli^1,2,3,#, Duarte Martins^1,4,#, Marc Antoine Isorni⁵, Diala Khraiche¹, Antoine Legendre¹, Nathalie Boddaert⁶, Damien Bonnet¹, Filippo Crea^2,3, Francesca Raimondi^1,6,7,8,*

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.17, No.2, pp. 117-128, 2022, DOI:10.32604/chd.2022.018779

Abstract Background: Repaired Tetralogy of Fallot (rTOF) patients may have residual lesions such as main (MPA) and branch pulmonary artery stenosis (BPAS). While MPA stenosis is well studied, few data are available on BPAS in rTOF. We aimed to describe pulmonary perfusion in a large paediatric cohort of rTOF and its impact on right ventricular and outflow-tract hemodynamics using 4D flow CMR. Methods: 130 consecutive patients (mean age at CMR 14.3 ± 4.6 years) were retrospectively reviewed. 96 patients had transannular patch without valve preservation while 34 patients had conserved annulus or valved conduit. A pulmonary blood flow ratio (right pulmonary artery (RPA)/left… More > Graphic Abstract

Osama S. Faragallah^1,*, Ghada Abdel-Aziz², Hala S. El-sayed³, Gamal G. N. Geweid^4,5

Intelligent Automation & Soft Computing, Vol.30, No.2, pp. 575-588, 2021, DOI:10.32604/iasc.2021.019023

Abstract As a regular tool for assessing and diagnosing cardiovascular disease (CVD), medical professionals and health care centers, are highly dependent on cardiac imaging. The purpose of dividing the cardiac images is to paint the inner and outer walls of the heart to divide all or part of the limb’s boundaries. In order to enhance cardiologist in the process of cardiac segmentation, new and accurate methods are needed to divide the selected object, which is the left ventricle (LV). Segmentation techniques aim to provide a fast segmentation process and improve the reliability of the process. In this paper, a comparative study… More >

Narjes Benameur^1,*, Mazin Abed Mohammed², Ramzi Mahmoudi^3,4, Younes Arous⁵, Begonya Garcia-Zapirain⁶, Karrar Hameed Abdulkareem⁷, Mohamed Hedi Bedoui³

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.69, No.1, pp. 1233-1252, 2021, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2021.016860

Abstract Left ventricular (LV) dysfunction is mainly assessed by global contractile indices such as ejection fraction and LV Volumes in cardiac MRI. While these indices give information about the presence or not of LV alteration, they are not able to identify the location and the size of such alteration. The aim of this study is to compare the performance of three parametric imaging techniques used in cardiac MRI for the regional quantification of cardiac dysfunction. The proposed approaches were evaluated on 20 patients with myocardial infarction and 20 subjects with normal function. Three parametric images approaches: covariance analysis, parametric images based… More >

Osama S. Faragallah^1,*, Ghada Abdel-Aziz², Walid El-Shafai³, Hala S. El-sayed⁴, S.F. El-Zoghdy⁵, Gamal G.N. Geweid^6,7

Intelligent Automation & Soft Computing, Vol.29, No.1, pp. 15-29, 2021, DOI:10.32604/iasc.2021.017616

Abstract The process of segmentation of the cardiac image aims to limit the inner and outer walls of the heart to segment all or portions of the organ’s boundaries. Due to its accurate morphological information, magnetic resonance (MR) images are typically used in cardiac segmentation as they provide the best contrast of soft tissues. The data acquired from the resulting cardiac images simplifies not only the laboratory assessment but also other conventional diagnostic techniques that provide several useful measures to evaluate and diagnose cardiovascular disease (CVD). Therefore, scientists have offered numerous segmentation schemes to remedy these issues for producing more accurate… More >

Elise D. Pieterman^1,2, Ricardo P. J. Budde², Danielle Robbers-Visser^1,2, Ron T. van Domburg³, Willem A. Helbing^1,2

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.12, No.5, pp. 561-569, 2017, DOI:10.1111/chd.12484

Abstract Objective: Follow-up of right ventricular performance is important for patients with congenital heart disease. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging is optimal for this purpose. However, observerdependency of manual analysis of right ventricular volumes limit its use. Knowledge-based reconstruction is a new semiautomatic analysis tool that uses a database including knowledge of right ventricular shape in various congenital heart diseases. We evaluated whether knowledge-based reconstruction is a good alternative for conventional analysis.
Design: To assess the inter- and intra-observer variability and agreement of knowledge-based versus conventional analysis of magnetic resonance right ventricular volumes, analysis was done by two observers in a mixed… More >

Matthew J. Lewis¹, Elizabeth Hecht², Jonathan Ginns¹, Joshua Benton², Martin Prince², Marlon S. Rosenbaum¹

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.12, No.2, pp. 153-158, 2017, DOI:10.1111/chd.12422

Abstract Background: The progression of hepatic disease in adult Fontan patients is not well understood. They reviewed the experience with serial cardiac MRIs (CMR) in adult Fontan patients to determine if hepatic anatomic markers of prolonged Fontan exposure were present and if clinical predictors of progressive hepatic congestion could be identified.
Methods and Results: A retrospective cohort study of all adult Fontan patients who had undergone at least two CMRs was performed. Hepatic dimensions, inferior vena cava (IVC) size, right hepatic vein (RHV) size and spleen diameter were determined from images acquired at the time of clinically guided CMR. Two radiologists… More >