Cardiovascular magnetic resonance feature tracking in small animals – a preliminary study on reproducibility and sample size calculation

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular magnetic resonance feature tracking (CMR-FT) is a novel tissue tracking technique developed for noninvasive assessment of myocardial motion and deformation. This preliminary study aimed to evaluate the observer’s reproducibility of CMR-FT in a small animal (mouse) model and define sample size calculation for future trials. METHODS: Six C57BL/6 J mice were selected from the ongoing experimental mouse model onsite and underwent CMR with a 3 Tesla small animal MRI scanner. Myocardial deformation was analyzed using dedicated software (TomTec, Germany) by two observers. Left ventricular (LV) longitudinal, circumferential and radial strain (Ell(LAX), Ecc(SAX) and Err(SAX)) were calculated. To assess intra-observer agreement data analysis was repeated after 4 weeks. The sample size required to detect a relative change in strain was calculated. RESULTS: In general, Ecc(SAX) and Ell(LAX) demonstrated highest inter-observer reproducibility (ICC 0.79 (0.46–0.91) and 0.73 (0.56–0.83) Ecc(SAX) and Ell(LAX) respectively). In contrast, at the intra-observer level Ell(LAX) was more reproducible than Ecc(SAX) (ICC 0.83 (0.73–0.90) and 0.74 (0.49–0.87) Ell(LAX) and Ecc(SAX) respectively). The reproducibility of Err(SAX) was weak at both observer levels. Preliminary sample size calculation showed that a small study sample (e.g. ten animals to detect a relative 10% change in Ecc(SAX)) could be sufficient to detect changes if parameter variability is low. CONCLUSIONS: This pilot study demonstrates good to excellent inter- and intra-observer reproducibility of CMR-FT technique in small animal model. The most reproducible measures are global circumferential and global longitudinal strain, whereas reproducibility of radial strain is weak. Furthermore, sample size calculation demonstrates that a small number of animals could be sufficient for future trials.