Quantification of turbulence and velocity in stenotic flow using spiral three-dimensional phase-contrast MRI

Purpose: Evaluate spiral three-dimensional (3D) phase contrast MRI for the assessment of turbulence and velocity in stenotic flow.

Methods: A-stack-of-spirals 3D phase contrast MRI sequence was evaluated in vitro against a conventional Cartesian sequence. Measurements were made in a flow phantom with a 75% stenosis. Both spiral and Cartesian imaging were performed using different scan orientations and flow rates. Volume flow rate, maximum velocity and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) were computed for both methods. Moreover, the estimated TKE was compared with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) data.

Results: There was good agreement between the turbulent kinetic energy from the spiral, Cartesian and CFD data. Flow rate and maximum velocity from the spiral data agreed well with Cartesian data. As expected, the short echo time of the spiral sequence resulted in less prominent displacement artifacts compared with the Cartesian sequence. However, both spiral and Cartesian flow rate estimates were sensitive to displacement when the flow was oblique to the encoding directions.

Conclusion: Spiral 3D phase contrast MRI appears favorable for the assessment of stenotic flow. The spiral sequence was more than three times faster and less sensitive to displacement artifacts when compared with a conventional Cartesian sequence.