3D cardiac strain estimation using spatio-temporal elastic registration: In-vivo application

Earlier studies of our group based on synthetic volumetric ultrasound data showed that automatic intensity-based spatio-temporal elastic registration of currently available three-dimensional (3D) volumetric ultrasound data sets should allow to measure the full myocardial motion, deformation and strain in three dimensions. This is a clear advantage over currently available ultrasound methods, which are often limited to measurements in one or two dimensions. In the present study, the in-vivo feasibility of this method was tested on clinical data taken from three healthy volunteers and one patient with an apical aneurism.