4D Flow: Clinical
Ann Bolger1,2

1Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States, 2Linkoping University, Linkoping, Sweden

Synopsis

Four dimensional flow visualization and quantification using phase contrast MRI has expanded the functional assessment of intracardiac and vascular blood flow in health as well as many forms of common disease. The impacts of chamber remodeling, endothelial disruption, material property changes related to infarction, atherosclerosis, or inflammation may all influence site-specific and global flow, and provide clues to their presence and severity. Further, the tolerance for variability in load, heart rate and rhythm may also be predicted by flow-based measures at baseline. Definition of the range of normal flow across the gender and age spectrum is critical to utilizing 4D flow methods in clinical applications.

Target audience

Clinicians, clinical and basic researchers interested in cardiac or vascular flow including aspects of heart failure, aortic disease, congenital heart disease.



Objectives

At the end of this session, learners will:

Identify flow-based assessments for normal atrial, ventricular, pulmonary arterial, aortic and vascular function

Identify flow-based criteria that identify changes in function related to cardiac failure, remodeling and structural abnormalities

Identify flow-based tools that may assist in detection of clinically important cardiac and vascular diseases at early or subclinical stages


Discussion

Four dimensional flow visualization and quantification using phase contrast MRI has expanded the functional assessment of intracardiac and vascular blood flow in health as well as many forms of common disease. The impacts of chamber remodeling, endothelial disruption, material property changes related to infarction, atherosclerosis, or inflammation may all influence site-specific and global flow, and provide clues to their presence and severity. Further, the tolerance for variability in load, heart rate and rhythm may also be predicted by flow-based measures at baseline. Definition of the range of normal flow across the gender and age spectrum is critical to utilizing 4D flow methods in clinical applications.

Conclusions

Multiple applications are possible for the expanding set of metrics derived from four dimensional flow analysis. Demonstration of the clinical utility of such applications depends on well defined normal values for age and gender, as well as careful selection of relevant parameters that goes beyond visualization to reproducible quantification.

Acknowledgements

No acknowledgement found.

References

No reference found.
Proc. Intl. Soc. Mag. Reson. Med. 25 (2017)