Assessment of hemodynamic function in arrhythmia patients

• US 10,638,940 B2
• Filed: 02/04/2016
• Issued: 05/05/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Trustees Of The University Of Pennsylvania (University of Pennsylvania)
• Original Assignee: Trustees Of The University Of Pennsylvania (University of Pennsylvania)
• Inventors: Witschey, Walter R. T., Contijoch, Francisco, Gorman, Robert C., Han, Yuchi
• Primary Examiner(s): Lamprecht, Joel
• Application Number:
  US15/015,373
• Publication Number:
  US 20160228014A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,552 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2576/023 for the heart
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0044 for the heart
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02028 Determining haemodynamic parameters not otherwise provided for, e.g. cardiac contractility or left ventricular ejection fraction
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/055 involving electronic [EMR] or nuclear [NMR] magnetic resonance, e.g. magnetic resonance imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/318 Heart-related electrical modalities, e.g. electrocardiography [ECG]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/349 Detecting specific parameters of the electrocardiograph cycle
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7289 Retrospective gating, i.e. associating measured signals or images with a physiological event after the actual measurement or image acquisition, e.g. by simultaneously recording an additional physiological signal during the measurement or image acquisition
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/40 for processing medical images, e.g. editing

Abstract

Electrocardiogram (ECG)-gated cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) alone may be unable to capture the hemodynamics associated with arrhythmic events. As a result, values such as ejection fraction are acquisition dependent. The desired RR-duration determines the arrhythmia rejection. By combining real-time volume measurements with ECG recordings, beat morphologies can be categorized and a more comprehensive evaluation of ventricular function during arrhythmia can be provided.

Claims

1. A method for evaluating hemodynamic function of a heart by:

obtaining cardiac imaging data;

obtaining physiologic data synchronous to the cardiac imaging data;

analyzing the physiologic data to determine multiple cardiac contraction morphologies, wherein each of the cardiac contraction morphologies is indicative of a different beat pattern in the physiologic data determined based on one or more first parameters;

estimating hemodynamic information for each of the cardiac contraction morphologies using the cardiac imaging data; and

determining a second parameter based on a combination of the hemodynamic information estimated for each of the cardiac contraction morphologies.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein estimating the hemodynamic information includes estimating global hemodynamic information for each cardiac contraction morphology by combining regional hemodynamic information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the cardiac imaging data is used to obtain the regional hemodynamic information.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising producing a comprehensive hemodynamic quantification report based on the cardiac contraction morphologies and the global hemodynamic information.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the cardiac imaging data comprises heart chamber imaging data.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the cardiac imaging data comprises a two-dimensional 2D multi-slice MRI acquisition.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the cardiac imaging data comprises a 2D golden angle radial acquisition.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the physiologic data comprises electrocardiogram (ECG) data.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the cardiac imaging data comprises 2D slice imaging data that allows for regional evaluation of contraction and conduction patterns.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the second parameter comprises an ejection fraction that is determined based on a weighted average of the hemodynamic information for each of the cardiac contraction morphologies.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the cardiac contraction morphologies are determined using multidimensional classifiers.

12. A computer adapted to evaluate hemodynamic function of a heart, the computer including a memory and a processor, the processor adapted to:

obtain cardiac imaging data;

obtain physiologic data synchronous to the cardiac imaging data;

analyze the physiologic data to determine multiple cardiac contraction morphologies, wherein each of the cardiac contraction morphologies is indicative of a different beat pattern in the physiologic data determined based on one or more first parameters;

estimate hemodynamic information for each of the cardiac contraction morphologies using the cardiac imaging data; and

determine a second parameter based on a combination of the hemodynamic information estimated for each of the cardiac contraction morphologies.

13. The computer of claim 12, wherein estimating the hemodynamic information includes estimating global hemodynamic information for each cardiac contraction morphology by combining regional hemodynamic information.

14. The computer of claim 13, wherein the cardiac imaging data is used to obtain the regional hemodynamic information.

15. The computer of claim 13, wherein the processor is further adapted to produce a comprehensive hemodynamic quantification report based on the cardiac contraction morphologies and the global hemodynamic information.

16. The computer of claim 12, wherein the cardiac imaging data comprises heart chamber imaging data.

17. The computer of claim 16, wherein the heart chamber imaging data comprises magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data.

18. The computer of claim 12, wherein the cardiac imaging data comprises a two-dimensional 2D multi-slice MRI acquisition.

19. The computer of claim 12, wherein the cardiac imaging data comprises a 2D golden angle radial acquisition.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause:

obtaining cardiac imaging data;

obtaining physiologic data synchronous to the cardiac imaging data;

analyzing the physiologic data to determine multiple cardiac contraction morphologies, wherein each of the cardiac contraction morphologies is indicative of a different beat pattern in the physiologic data determined based on one or more first parameters;

estimating hemodynamic information for each of the cardiac contraction morphologies using the cardiac imaging data; and

determining a second parameter based on a combination of the hemodynamic information estimated for each of the cardiac contraction morphologies.