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Updated: Jul 11, 2026
Quantification of Mouse Heart Left Ventricular Function, Myocardial Strain, and Hemodynamic Forces by Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Published on: May 24, 2021
Transit of blood flow through the human left ventricle mapped by cardiovascular magnetic resonance
Ann F Bolger1, Einar Heiberg, Matts Karlsson
1Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, California 94110, USA. abolger@medsfgh.ucsf.edu
Insights
New MRI techniques quantify blood flow in the left ventricle (LV), revealing how direct routes conserve kinetic energy (KE) better than retained flow, especially in normal hearts compared to dilated cardiomyopathy.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Physiology
- Medical Imaging
- Biomedical Engineering
Background:
- Understanding blood flow dynamics within the beating heart is fundamental to cardiovascular physiology.
- Quantification of multidirectional blood flow in the normal left ventricle (LV) is not well-established.
- Lack of detailed flow data hinders contextualizing changes seen in LV dysfunction and post-cardiac surgery.
Purpose of the Study:
- To visualize and measure blood flow components and kinetic energy (KE) changes during diastole in the normal left ventricle (LV).
- To compare diastolic blood flow patterns and KE conservation between healthy individuals and a patient with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM).
Main Methods:
- Utilized 3D, 3-directional, time-resolved magnetic resonance phase-contrast velocity mapping at 1.5 Tesla.
- Analyzed 17 healthy subjects (44+/-14 years, 6 female) and one DCM patient.
- Measured relative volumes of LV flow components and diastolic KE changes.
Main Results:
- In healthy subjects, 44+/-11% of diastolic inflow followed a direct route to ejection, versus 11% in the DCM patient.
- Normal subjects conserved 16+/-8% of inflow KE, compared to 5% in the DCM patient.
- Blood on the direct route lost significantly less KE (1.6+/-1.0 mJ) than retained blood (8.2+/-1.9 mJ) (p<0.05); DCM patient showed an 18-fold greater KE reduction in retained inflow.
Conclusions:
- Multidimensional flow mapping effectively measures blood paths, compartmentalization, and KE dynamics in the LV.
- Significant differences in KE loss exist between flow compartments within the LV.
- This technique shows potential for differentiating flow characteristics between normal and dilated left ventricles.
Background:
The transit of blood through the beating heart is a basic aspect of cardiovascular physiology which remains incompletely studied. Quantification of the components of multidirectional flow in the normal left ventricle (LV) is lacking, making it difficult to put the changes observed with LV dysfunction and cardiac surgery into context.
Methods:
Three dimensional, three directional, time resolved magnetic resonance phase-contrast velocity mapping was performed at 1.5 Tesla in 17 normal subjects, 6 female, aged 44+/-14 years (mean+/-SD). We visualized and measured the relative volumes of LV flow components and the diastolic changes in inflowing kinetic energy (KE). Of total diastolic inflow volume, 44+/-11% followed a direct, albeit curved route to systolic ejection (videos 1 and 2), in contrast to 11% in a subject with mildly dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), who was included for preliminary comparison (video 3). In normals, 16+/-8% of the KE of inflow was conserved to the end of diastole, compared with 5% in the DCM patient. Blood following the direct route lost or transferred less of its KE during diastole than blood that was retained until the next beat (1.6+/-1.0 millijoules vs 8.2+/-1.9 millijoules, p<0.05); whereas, in the DCM patient, the reduction in KE of retained inflow was 18-fold greater than that of the blood tracing the direct route.
Conclusion:
Multidimensional flow mapping can measure the paths, compartmentalization and kinetic energy changes of blood flowing into the LV, demonstrating differences of KE loss between compartments, and potentially between the flows in normal and dilated left ventricles.
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