Abstract
This prospective study investigated the effects of fold-over oversampling on phase-offset background errors with 2D-Cine phase contrast (Cine-PC) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). It was performed on brain MRI and compared to conventional Full-field of view FOV coverage and it was tested with two different velocity encoding (Venc) values. We chose Venc = 100 mm/s to encode cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flows in the aqueduct and 600 mm/s to encode blood flow in the carotid artery. Cine-PC was carried out on 10 healthy adult volunteers followed simultaneously by an acquisition on static agar-gel phantom to measure the phase-offset background errors. Pixel-wise correction of both the CSF and the blood flows was calculated through 32 points of the cardiac-cycle. We compared the velocity-to-noise ratio, the section area, the absolute and the corrected velocity (peak; mean and minimum), the net flow, and the stroke volume before and after correction. We performed the statistical T-test to compare Full-FOV and fold-over and Bland–Altman plots to analyze their differences. Our results showed that following phase-offset error correction, the blood stroke-volume was significantly higher with Full-FOV compared to fold-over. We observed a significantly higher CSF mean velocity and net flow values in the fold-over option. Compared to Full-FOV, fold-over provides a significantly larger section area and significantly lower peak velocity-offset in the aqueduct. No significant difference between the two coverages was reported before and after phase-offset in blood flow measurements. In conclusion, fold-over oversampling can be chosen as an alternative to increase spatial resolution and accurate cerebral flow quantification in Cine-PC.
Highlights
Flow-encoding 2D-Cine phase-contrast (Cine-PC) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has growing interest in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and blood flow assessment
No difference was recorded in the internal carotid artery (ICA) blood flow (Table 2)
We demonstrated that the velocity-to-noise ratio (VNR), The mean velocities, The net flows, and the stroke volumes were not significantly different
Summary
Flow-encoding 2D-Cine phase-contrast (Cine-PC) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has growing interest in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and blood flow assessment. It has the capability to measure the peak and mean flow velocities and volumes through the entire cardiac cycle. These underlying flow information and dynamic parameters can be used to grade the severity of hydrocephalus pathologies and cerebrovascular artero-venous dysfunctions. CSF and blood flow quantifications have been successfully performed in the aqueduct [1] and the artero-venous systems [2]. These measurements allow for a better understanding of the brain hydro/hemo dynamic related to hydrocephalus intracranial hypo/hypertension [3] and posterior fossa cystic mal-formations [4]. It has been successfully applied to reproduce the distribution of blood flow in the branches of the circle of Willis with age [5]
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