Cardiovascular magnetic resonance feature tracking in pigs: a reproducibility and sample size calculation study

Cardiovascular magnetic resonance feature tracking (CMR-FT) is a novel technique for non-invasive assessment of myocardial motion and deformation. Although CMR-FT is standardized in humans, literature on comparative analysis from animal models is scarce. In this study, we measured the reproducibility of global strain under various inotropic states and the sample size needed to test its relative changes in pigs. Ten anesthetized healthy Landrace pigs were investigated. After baseline (BL), two further steps were performed: (I) dobutamine-induced hyper-contractility (Dob) and (II) verapamil-induced hypocontractility (Ver). Global longitudinal (GLS), circumferential (GCS) and radial strain (GRS) were assessed. This study shows a good to excellent inter- and intra-observer reproducibility of CMR-FT in pigs under various inotropic states. The highest inter-observer reproducibility was observed for GLS at both BL (ICC 0.88) and Ver (ICC 0.79). According to the sample size calculation for GLS, a small number of animals could be used for future trials.