Development of Cardiac Diffusion Tensor Imaging for Clinical Evaluation of Cardiomyopathies

Lead supervisor: Professor Betty Raman 
Co-supervisor: Professor Damian Tyler 
Commercial partner: GE Healthcare 

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a common inherited heart muscle disorder characterised by hypertrophy of the cardiac tissue and disarray of the myocardial fibres. This leads to increased risks of heart failure, arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death. While conventional imaging approaches, such as cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), provide valuable information on cardiac structure and function, they fail to capture the micro-architecture of the cardiac tissue. Cardiac diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a novel MRI approach that offers a non-invasive method to assess myocardial fibre orientation, dynamics and disarray, holding promise for improved phenotyping and risk stratification in HCM. However, current implementations of cardiac DTI are challenged by low signal-to-noise ratio, cardiac and respiratory motion, and lengthy scan times.

This project aims to develop a robust cardiac DTI framework on a state-of-the-art GE Healthcare MRI scanner tailored for clinical application in patients with HCM. Specifically, the project will combine innovative image acquisition techniques (e.g. non-Cartesian k-space sampling using radial or spiral trajectories to accelerate image acquisition, improve motion robustness and enable flexible retrospective cardiac gating) with new image reconstruction approaches (e.g., Pseudo-Inversion reconstruction to suppress image distortions/artefacts and allow undersampled reconstructions). These methods will be implemented and optimised on our clinical 3T GE Healthcare MRI system, followed by validation in healthy volunteers and patients with HCM. Key endpoints will include inter- and intra-observer reproducibility, fidelity of measured parameters (e.g. helix angle and sheetlet maps), and correlation with conventional imaging markers and clinical status. By enhancing the technical robustness of cardiac DTI and enabling clinical deployment in HCM, this project will lay the groundwork for future studies assessing microstructural remodelling, genotype-phenotype associations, and response to emerging therapies such as myosin inhibitors and gene therapies.

The graduate student will have access to the 3T MRI and RF labs at GE HealthCare Munich during the stay at our facility. The graduate student will gain insights into how MR scientists work in an industrial research and development centre. The student can start building a network by presenting and discussing their own academic work to the global team of MR scientists. Furthermore, technical training in MR pulse sequence programming, reconstruction methods and AI models will be made available to the student to further enhance their technical skills and grow their academic-industry network.

Apply using course: DPhil in Medical Sciences