Analysis of left-ventricular pathological flow via phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging

The right preoperative assessment of mitral valve insufficiency is essential for a successful therapy. But although significant progress has been made in the visualization and quantification of the regurgitant flow, clinicians may still misinterpret the severity of the insufficiency, particularly in rather light cases. In order to provide more reliable information, we aim to generate full 4D flow visualization from phase-contrast MRI data. In this paper, we present—as a first step—an analysis of the velocity field obtained from a particular MRI sequence. We acquire data from a small series of six pigs with surgically induced mitral insufficiency, which is subsequently noise filtered and transformed into a velocity field dataset. For analysis we use echocardiography-like red/blue velocity representations as well as 2D and 3D arrow (quiver) plots. We obtain clear and distinct flow patterns for both physiological and pathological flow. However, 3D representations require further pre-processing in order to reveal useful information. We conclude that MRI sequences measuring full 4D velocity fields are well suited for the analysis of mitral regurgitant flow. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]