Inlet and outlet valve flow and regurgitant volume may be directly and reliably quantified with accelerated, volumetric phase-contrast MRI

Purpose: To determine whether it is feasible to use solely an accelerated 4D phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (4D-PC MRI) acquisition to quantify net and regurgitant flow volume through each of the cardiac valves.

Materials and methods: Accelerated, 4D-PC MRI examinations performed between March 2010 through June 2011 as part of routine MRI examinations for congenital, structural heart disease were retrospectively reviewed and analyzed using valve-tracking visualization and quantification algorithms developed in Java and OpenGL. Excluding patients with transposition or single ventricle physiology, a total of 34 consecutive pediatric patients (19 male, 15 female; mean age 6.9 years; age range 10 months to 15 years) were identified. 4D-PC flow measurements were compared at each valve and against routine measurements from conventional cardiac MRI using Bland-Altman and Pearson correlation analysis.

Results: Inlet and outlet valve net flow were highly correlated between all valves (P = 0.940-0.985). The sum of forward flow at the outlet valve and regurgitant flow at the inlet valve were consistent with volumetric displacements in each ventricle (P = 0.939-0.948). These were also highly consistent with conventional planar MRI measurements with net flow (P = 0.923-0.935) and regurgitant fractions (P = 0.917-0.972) at the outlet valve and ventricular volumes (P = 0.925-0.965).

Conclusion: It is possible to obtain consistent measurements of net and regurgitant blood flow across the inlet and outlet valves relying solely on accelerated 4D-PC. This may facilitate more efficient clinical quantification of valvular regurgitation.