8.1 Opening Studies in the Cardiac Function Analysis Module

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Functionality is available in a separate module which is activated in the Pro edition for an extra fee
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To open a study in the cardiac function analysis module, proceed as follows:

1. Choose a study and select MR series with images oriented along the short and long axis of the heart.In some cases, you don’t have to select series with images oriented along the long axis of the heart. For details on selecting series, see Section 1.10.

2. Click the Cardiac function analysis  button on the toolbar. To select the tab location (in the current window, in a separate window, or in the full-screen mode), press the arrow on the right-hand side of the button. To open the cardiac analysis window in a new tab in the current window, press the button. The process may take some time.

   The Cardiac function analysis tool is also available in the View section of the main menu.

3. When the cardiac function analysis module is activated, the Input data for cardiac function analysis dialog box pops up (see Fig. 8.1), where the DICOM Viewer automatically arranges the selected series in groups. A group consists of one or several series united by planes parallelism. If there is more than one series in a group, series are merged. For each series group, the type is automatically defined: with images oriented along the short axis of the heart SAX (Short axis series) or with images oriented along the long axis of the heart LAX (Long axis series). Sometimes the series type cannot be defined automatically. In this case, you will see the  —  symbol as the axis type.

   If the series to be merged have the same names, a suffix (xN) will be added to the merged series description for each group of series with the same names, where N stands for the number of series with the same names.

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   Figure 8.1: "Input data for cardiac function analysis" dialog box

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   The user may change the type of axis for the group. To do that, select the group and click the Set as SAX or Set as LAX button. You don’t need the series with images oriented along the long axis of the heart (LAX) series to analyze certain cardiac functions.

   To reset the type of axis for the group, select it on the list and click Reset selected series  — .

   To continue work, you need at least one series or group to have the SAX type of axis.

4. In the lower part of the dialog box, you can see the information about the patient that is loaded automatically. Sometimes only a part of the information is filled in automatically. In this case, other parameters referring to the patient must be provided manually:

   • heart rate (beats/min);

   • height (cm);

   • weight (kg).

5. Click OK to enter the data required for cardiac function analysis or CANCEL to cancel.

If you haven’t provided all the required parameters in the Input data for cardiac function analysis dialog box (see Fig. 8.1), the OK button will be deactivated.

In the Cardiac function analysis tab, you can see two windows, with the SAX merged series and the LAX merged series (Fig. 8.2). The toolbar for cardiac function analysis is on the right-hand side of the tab.

Under the SAX and LAX windows, you can see the contours panel aimed for navigation between images and contour management (for details see Section 8.3.5). By default, the panel is expanded.

By default, all the slices for the current phase are shown in the SAX window. The phases may be switched by moving the slider along the horizontal scroll bar at the top of the SAX window or on the contour panel.

To escape the mode displaying all the slices for the current phase, click the right mouse button in the SAX window and disable the Multi-SAX arrangement option on the context menu. By default, the option is enabled and highlighted with blue on the menu. The SAX window in the Cardiac function analysis tab will be displayed as shown in Fig. 8.3.

In this particular case, the SAX window shows only one slice for the current phase. The slices may be switched by moving the slider along the vertical scroll bar on the right-hand side of the window or on the contour panel.

To go back to the mode displaying all the slices for the current phase, click the right mouse button in the SAX window and enable the Multi-SAX arrangement option on the context menu.

If only one slice is displayed in the SAX window, the Multi-SAX arrangement option is unavailable.

After the slices are moved or scaled, their arrangement in the SAX window can be optimized. To do this, click the right mouse button in the SAX window and select the Apply auto transform option on the context menu. The slices arrangement in the SAX window will be optimized: the empty space will be minimized, and the heart will occupy the optimal position.

Slices arrangement optimization in the SAX window is applied by default when the Cardiac function analysis tab is opened.