title: First report on intraoperative vector flow imaging of the heart among patients with healthy and diseased aortic valves.
abstract: The vector velocity method Transverse Oscillation (TO) implemented on a conventional ultrasound (US) scanner (ProFocus, BK Medical, Herlev, Denmark) can provide real-time, angle-independent estimates of the cardiac blood flow. During cardiac surgery, epicardial US examination using TO was performed on (A) 3 patients with healthy aortic valve and (B) 3 patients with aortic valve stenosis. In group B, the systolic flow of the ascending aorta had higher velocities, was more aliased and chaotic. The jet narrowed to 44% of the lumen compared to 75% in group A and with a vector concentration, a measure of flow complexity, of 0.41 compared to 0.87 in group A. The two groups had similar secondary flow of the ascending aorta with an average rotation frequency of 4.8 Hz. Simultaneous measurements were obtained with spectral Doppler (SD) and a thermodilution technique (TD). The mean difference in peak systolic velocity compared to SD in group A was 22% and 45% in B, while the mean difference in volume flow compared to TD in group A was 30% and 32% in B. TO can potentially reveal new information of cardiac blood flow, and may become a valuable diagnostic tool in the evaluation of patients with cardiovascular diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark. Electronic address: lindskov@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Kristoffer Lindskov
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark.
authors.forename: Hasse
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Møller-Sørensen
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark.
authors.forename: Mads Møller
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Pedersen
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark.
authors.forename: Peter Møller
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jesper
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kjaergaard
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jens Teglgaard
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Lund
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jens Christian
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Nilsson
authors.affiliation: Center for Fast Ultrasound Imaging, DTU Elektro, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jørgen Arendt
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark.
authors.forename: Michael Bachmann
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Nielsen
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001024:Aortic Valve Stenosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D003326:Coronary Circulation / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007432:Intraoperative Period; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014463:Ultrasonography; D014672:Vectorcardiography
keywords: Aortic valve; Cardiac flow; Stenosis; Transverse oscillation; Vector flow imaging