Novel contouring method for optimizing MRI flow quantification in patients with aortic valve disease.

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Imaging
• Medical Physics
• Cardiac MRI

Background:

• Accurate quantification of aortic flow using cardiac MRI is essential for assessing valvular heart disease severity.
• Current standard contouring methods may have limitations in precisely measuring systolic aortic forward flow.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the accuracy of a novel Selective Systolic Contouring (SSC) method for aortic flow quantification compared to standard contouring (SC) methods.
• To assess the performance of SSC at the aortic valve level in patients with aortic valve disease.

Main Methods:

• Cardiac MRI was performed on 98 patients with native aortic valve (AoV) disease and controls.
• Aortic forward flow was quantified using both standard contouring (SC) and a novel Selective Systolic Contouring (SSC) method at the aortic valve level.
• Bias was calculated as the difference between aortic forward flow and left ventricular stroke volume (LV SV).

Main Results:

• All methods tended to underestimate aortic forward flow, but SSC demonstrated the smallest bias (p < 0.001).
• SSC resulted in the lowest estimates of mitral regurgitant volume (4.8 ml) and regurgitant fraction (3.9%) (p < 0.05).
• SSC at the AoV level more closely approximated LV SV in the study cohort.

Conclusions:

• The Selective Systolic Contouring (SSC) method offers improved accuracy for MRI aortic flow quantification.
• SSC may provide a more precise quantitative assessment of both aortic and mitral valve function compared to standard methods.
• This novel technique holds promise for optimizing the evaluation of valvular disease severity.