Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Flow-gated radial phase-contrast imaging in the presence of weak flow

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
The International Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

To implement a flow-gating method to acquire phase-contrast (PC) images of carotid arteries without use of an electrocardiography (ECG) signal to synchronize the acquisition of imaging data with pulsatile arterial flow. The flow-gating method was realized through radial scanning and sophisticated post-processing methods including downsampling, complex difference, and correlation analysis to improve the evaluation of flow-gating times in radial phase-contrast scans. Quantitatively comparable results (R = 0.92–0.96, n = 9) of flow-related parameters, including mean velocity, mean flow rate, and flow volume, with conventional ECG-gated imaging demonstrated that the proposed method is highly feasible. The radial flow-gating PC imaging method is applicable in carotid arteries. The proposed flow-gating method can potentially avoid the setting up of ECG-related equipment for brain imaging. This technique has potential use in patients with arrhythmia or weak ECG signals.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Calderon-Arnulphi M, Amin-Hanjani S, Alaraj A, Zhao M, Du X, Ruland S, Zhou XJ, Thulborn KR, Charbel FT (2011) In vivo evaluation of quantitative MR angiography in a canine carotid artery stenosis model. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 32(8):1552–1559. doi:10.3174/ajnr.A2546

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. ten Dam VH, Box FM, de Craen AJ, van den Heuvel DM, Bollen EL, Murray HM, van Buchem MA, Westendorp RG, Blauw GJ (2005) Lack of effect of pravastatin on cerebral blood flow or parenchymal volume loss in elderly at risk for vascular disease. Stroke 36(8):1633–1636

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Steinman DA, Thomas JB, Ladak HM, Milner JS, Rutt BK, Spence JD (2002) Reconstruction of carotid bifurcation hemodynamics and wall thickness using computational fluid dynamics and MRI. Magn Reson Med 47(1):149–159. doi:10.1002/mrm.10025

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Marshall I (2010) Computational simulations and experimental studies of 3D phase-contrast imaging of fluid flow in carotid bifurcation geometries. J Magn Reson Imaging 31(4):928–934. doi:10.1002/jmri.22096

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Carvalho JL, Nielsen JF, Nayak KS (2010) Feasibility of in vivo measurement of carotid wall shear rate using spiral Fourier velocity encoded MRI. Magn Reson Med 63(6):1537–1547. doi:10.1002/mrm.22325

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Liu Y, Karonen JO, Vanninen RL, Nuutinen J, Koskela A, Soimakallio S, Aronen HJ (2004) Acute ischemic stroke: predictive value of 2D phase-contrast MR angiography–serial study with combined diffusion and perfusion MR imaging. Radiology 231(2):517–527

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. de Boorder MJ, Hendrikse J, van der Grond J (2004) Phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging measurements of cerebral autoregulation with a breath-hold challenge: a feasibility study. Stroke 35(6):1350–1354

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Nacif MS, Zavodni A, Kawel N, Choi EY, Lima JA, Bluemke DA (2011) Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and its electrocardiographs (ECG): tips and tricks. Int J Cardiovasc Imaging. doi:10.1007/s10554-011-9957-4

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Larson AC, White RD, Laub G, McVeigh ER, Li D, Simonetti OP (2004) Self-gated cardiac cine MRI. Magn Reson Med 51(1):93–102

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Thompson RB, McVeigh ER (2004) Flow-gated phase-contrast MRI using radial acquisitions. Magn Reson Med 52(3):598–604

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Macgowan CK, Liu GK, van Amerom JF, Sussman MS, Wright GA (2010) Self-gated Fourier velocity encoding. Magn Reson Imaging 28(1):95–102. doi:10.1016/j.mri.2009.05.021

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Liu J, Spincemaille P, Codella NC, Nguyen TD, Prince MR, Wang Y (2010) Respiratory and cardiac self-gated free-breathing cardiac CINE imaging with multiecho 3D hybrid radial SSFP acquisition. Magn Reson Med 63(5):1230–1237. doi:10.1002/mrm.22306

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Bernstein MA, Ikezaki Y (1991) Comparison of phase-difference and complex-difference processing in phase-contrast MR angiography. J Magn Reson Imaging 1(6):725–729

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Polzin JA, Alley MT, Korosec FR, Grist TM, Wang Y, Mistretta CA (1995) A complex-difference phase-contrast technique for measurement of volume flow rates. J Magn Reson Imaging 5(2):129–137

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Thompson RB, McVeigh ER (2003) Real-time volumetric flow measurements with complex-difference MRI. Magn Reson Med 50(6):1248–1255

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Wedeen VJ, Rosen BR, Buxton R, Brady TJ (1986) Projective MRI angiography and quantitative flow-volume densitometry. Magn Reson Med 3(2):226–241

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Tsai SY, Wu MT, Lin YR, Hsieh KS, Lin CC, Huang TY, Chung HW, Pan JY, Huang YL, Pan HB, Yang CF (2006) Temporal correlation-based dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging improves assessment of complex pulmonary circulation in congenital heart disease. Magn Reson Med 56(3):517–526. doi:10.1002/mrm.21001

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Jackson JI, Meyer CH, Nishimura DG, Macovski A (1991) Selection of a convolution function for Fourier inversion using gridding. IEEE Trans Med Imaging 10(3):473–478. doi:10.1109/42.97598

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Alperin N, Lee SH (2003) PUBS: pulsatility-based segmentation of lumens conducting non-steady flow. Magn Reson Med 49(5):934–944. doi:10.1002/mrm.10455

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Huang TY, Chung HW, Chen MY, Giiang LH, Chin SC, Lee CS, Chen CY, Liu YJ (2004) Supratentorial cerebrospinal fluid production rate in healthy adults: quantification with two-dimensional cine phase-contrast MR imaging with high temporal and spatial resolution. Radiology 233(2):603–608. doi:10.1148/radiol.2332030884

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Damji AA, Snyder RE, Ellinger DC, Witkowski FX, Allen PS (1988) RF interference suppression in a cardiac synchronization system operating in a high magnetic field NMR imaging system. Magn Reson Imaging 6(6):637–640

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Polson MJ, Barker AT, Gardiner S (1982) The effect of rapid rise-time magnetic fields on the ECG of the rat. Clin Phys Physiol Meas 3(3):231–234

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Rokey R, Wendt RE, Johnston DL (1988) Monitoring of acutely ill patients during nuclear magnetic resonance imaging: use of a time-varying filter electrocardiographic gating device to reduce gradient artifacts. Magn Reson Med 6(2):240–245

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Shetty AN (1988) Suppression of radiofrequency interference in cardiac gated MRI: a simple design. Magn Reson Med 8(1):84–88

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Supported in part by the National Science Council under grants NSC 100-2628-E-011 and NSC 100-2911-I-007-501.

Conflict of interest

None

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, College of Nuclear Science, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, ROC

    Hsu-Hsia Peng & Fu-Nien Wang

  2. Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC

    Teng-Yi Huang

  3. Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC

    Hsiao-Wen Chung

Authors
  1. Hsu-Hsia Peng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Teng-Yi Huang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Fu-Nien Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Hsiao-Wen Chung
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Teng-Yi Huang.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Peng, HH., Huang, TY., Wang, FN. et al. Flow-gated radial phase-contrast imaging in the presence of weak flow. Int J Cardiovasc Imaging 29, 131–140 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10554-012-0056-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10554-012-0056-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation