Cardiac Structure & Function Reference Values
Age- and sex-specific cardiovascular MRI reference values for LV and RV volumes, cardiac function, mass, strain, and wall thickness. Data are derived from the SCMR 2025 reference review. Volumes and EF use pooled cine reference values, while myocardial strain is restricted to 2D cvi42 feature tracking. Contouring conventions remain important.
Healthy reference
Select a cardiac parameter to compare published values.
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Values behind the plot
Published values by sex and age group. Error limits are provided only when reported.
| Reference | Sex / approach | Age / segment | Mean ± SD | Reference range | n |
|---|
Interpretation & measurement notes
LV and RV contours may treat papillary muscles and trabeculations differently. SCMR Table 5 includes papillary muscles in LV mass, whereas RV measures use different contouring conventions. Do not directly pool incompatible segmentation approaches. Cardiac index (CI) was not available in SCMR Tables 5 and 11 by these six age bins, so it is not plotted.
Negative GLS/GCS values indicate myocardial shortening. Strain is restricted to 2D feature tracking analyzed with cvi42. Pillai et al. (2025) Table 2 supplies age bins (1.5T, cvi42 v5.13), while SCMR 2025 Table 102 supplies sex-only summaries. The cine-derived LV/RV volume and EF ranges remain the SCMR pooled reference values and cannot accurately be labeled as cvi42-only without reanalyzing the contributing studies.
Primary sources
[2] Pillai R, Zhang L, Peters K, et al. Age- and sex-differences and reference values for ventricular strain by cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging in adults without cardiovascular disease or cardiovascular disease risk factors. J Cardiovasc Magn Reson. 2025;27:101902. Table 2; 903 healthy adults, 36–88 years, 1.5T, 2D FT / cvi42 v5.13. DOI. Open-ended age groups are positioned approximately on the chart; no within-bin slope is implied.
[1] Kawel-Boehm N, et al. SCMR reference values in cardiovascular magnetic resonance: 2025 update. DOI: 10.1016/j.jocmr.2025.101853. Tables 5, 11, 45 and 102.