PhD Scientific Days 2026

Poster Session 1.P - Cardiovascular Medicine and Research

New Solution for Segmental Assessment of Left Ventricular Wall Thickness, Using Anatomically Accurate and Highly Reproducible Automated Cardiac MRI Software

Name of the presenter

Mester, Balázs

Institute/workplace of the presenter

Semmelweis University Heart and Vascular Centre

Authors

Balázs Mester MD¹, Kristóf Attila Farkas-Sütő MD¹, Júlia Tardy¹, Kinga Grebur MD PhD¹, Flóra Gyulánszky MD¹, Márton Horváth MD¹, Hajnalka Vágó MD PhD¹, Béla Merkely MD PhD¹, Andrea Szűcs MD PhD¹
1: Semmelweis University Heart and Vascular Centre

Text of the abstract

Introduction: Changes in left ventricular (LV) wall thickness serve as important diagnostic and prognostic indicators in various cardiovascular diseases. To date, no automated software exists for the measurement of myocardial segmental wall thickness in cardiac MRI (CMR), which leads to reliance on manual caliper measurements that carry risks of inaccuracy.
Aims: This paper aims to present a new automated segmental wall thickness measure-ment software, OptiLayer, developed to address this issue and to compare it with the conventional manual measurement method.
Methods: In our pilot study, the algorithm of the OptiLayer software was tested on 50 HEALTHY individuals, and 50 excessively trabeculated noncompaction (LVET) subjects with preserved LV function, whose morphology makes it more challenging to measure left ventricular wall thickness, although often occurs with myocardial thinning. Measure-ments were performed by two independent investigators who assessed LV wall thick-nesses in 16 segments, both manually using the Medis Suite QMass program and auto-matically with the new OptiLayer method, which enables high-density sampling across the distance between the epicardial and endocardial contours.
Results: The results showed that the segmental wall thickness measurement values of the OptiLayer algorithm were significantly higher than those of the manual caliper. In com-parisons of the HEALTHY and LVET subgroups, OptiLayer measurements demonstrated differences at several points than manual measurements. Between the investigators, manual measurements showed low intraclass correlations (ICC below 0.6 on average), while measurements with OptiLayer gave excellent agreement (ICC above 0.9 in 75% of segments).
Conclusion: Our study suggests that OptiLayer, a new automated wall thickness meas-urement software based on high-precision anatomical segmentation, offers a faster, more accurate, and more reproducible alternative to manual measurements.

Funding: TKP2021-NKTA-46
Email: balazs.mester207@gmail.com
University: Semmelweis University
Supervisor: Andrea Szűcs MD PhD