Rapid Left-to-Right Shunt Quantification in Children by Phase-Contrast Magnetic Resonance Imaging Combined With Sensitivity Encoding (SENSE)

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Abstract
Background— Parallel imaging by sensitivity encoding (SENSE) may considerably reduce scan time in MRI. For rapid flow quantification in children with congenital heart disease, we evaluated phase-contrast MRI (PC-MRI) techniques combined with SENSE. Methods and Results— In 22 pediatric patients (mean age, 7.2±6.2 years) with cardiac left-to-right shunt, blood flow rate in the pulmonary artery (Qp) and ascending aorta (Qs) and flow ratio Qp/Qs were determined by PC-MRI with SENSE reduction-factor 2 and 3 (SF-2 and SF-3). Additionally, we used PC-MRI with higher spatial in-plane resolution (1.6×2.1 versus 2.3×3.1 mm) with and without SF-3. Results were compared with a recently validated standard PC-MRI protocol and tested in vitro using a pulsatile flow phantom. Reduction of signal averages from 2 to 1 and application of SENSE accelerated flow measurements by a factor of 3.5 (5.2) using PC-MRI with SF-2 (SF-3) compared with standard PC-MRI. For blood flow rate through the pulmonary artery and aorta, as well ...