title: Real-time color flow MRI.
abstract: A real-time interactive color flow MRI system capable of rapidly visualizing cardiac and vascular flow is described. Interleaved spiral phase contrast datasets are acquired continuously, while real-time gridding and phase differencing is used to compute density and velocity maps. These maps are then displayed using a color overlay similar to what is used by ultrasound. For cardiac applications, 6 independent images/sec are acquired with in-plane resolution of 2.4 mm over a 20 cm field of view (FOV). Sliding window reconstruction achieves display rates up to 18 images/sec. Appropriate tradeoffs are made for other applications. Flow phantom studies indicate this technique accurately measures velocities up to 2 m/sec, and accurately captures real-time velocity waveforms (comparable to continuous wave ultrasound). In vivo studies indicate this technique is useful for imaging cardiac and vascular flow, particularly valvular regurgitation. Arbitrary scan planes can be quickly localized, and flow measured in any direction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, California 94305-9510, USA. nayak@lad.stanford.edu
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Nayak
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Pauly
authors.forename: A B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Kerr
authors.forename: B S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: D G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Nishimura
mesh_terms: D001021:Aortic Valve / Q000473:pathology; D001022:Aortic Valve Insufficiency / Q000175:diagnosis; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D002339:Carotid Arteries / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D003116:Color; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D006801:Humans; D007083:Iliac Artery / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008943:Mitral Valve / Q000473:pathology; D008944:Mitral Valve Insufficiency / Q000175:diagnosis; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011150:Popliteal Artery / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D012016:Reference Values; D013997:Time Factors