Cardiovascular magnetic resonance semi-automated threshold-based post-processing of right ventricular volumes in repaired tetralogy of Fallot

Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is the gold-standard to estimate right ventricular (RV) volumes, which are key for clinical management of patients with repaired tetralogy of Fallot (rTOF). Semi-automated threshold-based methods (SAT) have been proposed for CMR post-processing as alternatives to fully manual standard tracing. We investigated the impact of SAT on RV analysis using different thresholds in rTOF patients. RV volumes and mass were estimated using SAT and standard fully manual tracing methods in rTOF patients. Two threshold levels were set for SAT, i.e., default 50 (SAT-50) and 30 (SAT-30). RV stroke volumes (SV) were compared to main pulmonary artery forward flow (MPA-FF). Post-processing time, intra- and interobserver variabilities were compared across methods. Sixty-two CMRs of rTOF patients were analyzed. Compared to the standard fully manual tracing, no significant differences in RV mass, volumes and ejection fraction were observed using SAT-30, whereas SAT-50 significantly underestimated RV end-diastolic-volume index (EDVi) by 10.4% (mean difference of - 11.8 ± 6.2 ml/m , p 0.03) and overestimated RV mass index by 21.8% (mean difference of 14.2 ± 11.9 g/m , p 0.002). Compared to MPA-FF, RVSV by standard fully manual method and SAT-30 showed minor biases, respectively, 0.03 ml/m and 0.7 ml/m , while SAT-50 underestimated RVSV by 6.86 ml/m (p