Combined Visualization of Intracardiac Blood Flow and Wall Motion Assessed by MRI

MRI is a well known and widely spread technique to characterize cardiac pathologies due to its high spatial resolution, its accessibility and its adjustable contrast among soft tissues. In an attempt to close the gap between blood flow, myocardial movement and the cardiac function, researching in the MRI field addresses the quantification of some of the most relevant blood and myocardial parameters. During this project a new tool that allows reading, postprocessing, quantifying and visualizing 2D motion sense MR data has been developed. In order to analyze intracardiac blood flow and wall motion, the new tool quantifies velocity, turbulent kinetic energy, pressure and strain. In the results section the final tool is presented, describing the visualization modes, which represent the quantified parameters both individually and combined; and detailing auxiliary tool features as masking, thresholding, zooming, and cursors. Finally, technical aspects as the convenience of two dimensional examinations to create compact tools, and the challenges of masking as part of the relative pressure calculation, among others, are discussed; ending up with the proposal of some future developments.