An MR Compatible Vascular Stenosis Method Based on Fiber Bragg Grating

Abstract

Progressive stenosis of blood vessels is an important cause of cardiovascular diseases. Traditional intervention methods rely on fluoroscopy, which exposes both patients and operators to ionizing radiation. In this paper, we propose a real-time detection method for vascular stenosis intervention based on Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors that can be used under magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) guidance. An FBG sensor array with 5 sensors is developed and validated using a vascular flow phantom that simulates the morphological features of stenoses. We first verify the sensor for measuring vascular stenosis through flow rate and profile using the FBG sensor array, followed by a detailed assessment of the MRI compatibility of the sensor in terms of imaging artefact and changes in SNR, The error of FBG array is within the range of ±10με, the SNR variation is 3.608%, indicating that the FBG sensor array has excellent MR image compatibility. Experiment results show a good correlation between the degrees of stenoses with strain measurements, thus offering real-time information to aid MR guided vascular intervention.