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Measurement of blood flow and perfusion in the cardiovascular system
C B Higgins1, G Caputo, M F Wendland
1Department of Radiology, University of California, San Francisco 94143.
Insights
Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging can assess cardiovascular disease by measuring blood flow and tissue perfusion. This technique visualizes blood flow in vessels and identifies ischemic regions in the myocardium.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular imaging
- Medical physics
- Biomedical engineering
Background:
- Comprehensive cardiovascular disease evaluation requires assessing both blood flow and tissue perfusion.
- Magnetic Resonance (MR) imaging offers potential for a unified approach.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the utility of MR techniques for evaluating cardiovascular disease.
- To detail methods for measuring blood flow and myocardial perfusion using MR.
Main Methods:
- Blood flow in arteries and veins measured using velocity-encoded phase cine gradient echo MR.
- Myocardial perfusion assessed with T1-enhancing MR contrast agents and echoplanar imaging.
- MR images acquired during contrast agent steady-state distribution or first passage.
Main Results:
- Velocity-encoded cine MR effectively measures normal and high velocities in blood vessels.
- Contrast-enhanced MR imaging depicts ischemic myocardial regions.
- Techniques allow for assessment of bulk flow and tissue perfusion.
Conclusions:
- MR imaging techniques can provide a comprehensive evaluation of cardiovascular disease.
- Combined assessment of blood flow and perfusion is achievable with MR.
- MR imaging shows promise for diagnosing and characterizing myocardial ischemia.
Abstract:
Complete evaluation of cardiovascular disease by a single imaging technique requires measurement of bulk flow in blood vessels and estimation of relative or ideally absolute perfusion at the tissue level. Magnetic resonance (MR) measurement of blood flow in arteries and veins has been done using the velocity-encoded phase cine gradient echo technique. This technique has been applied with cine MR to measure normal and pathologically high velocities. Measurement of relative perfusion in the myocardium has used the intravenous injection of T1 relaxation enhancing and magnetic susceptibility MR contrast media with rapid image acquisition using echoplanar imaging. MR images (MRIs) acquired during steady-state distribution or during the first passage of these contrast media have depicted ischemic myocardial regions.