Non-Invasive Calculation of Energy Loss in Pulmonary Arteries Using 4D Phase Contrast MRI Measurement

The recent development of energy based endpoints, to quantify the pathophysiology of congenital heart disease such as tetralogy of Fallot (TOF), requires accurate measurement of cardiac blood flow and pressure data. Consequently, invasive cardiac catheterization is required for those measurements. In this research we used 4D phase contrast magnetic resonance imaging (PC MRI) data to determine the pressure drop non-invasively. This enables us to obtain pressure-flow variation, which, in turn, allowed us to calculate energy loss along the branch pulmonary arteries (PA). Based on our result, we believe that the hemodynamic status of the PA of a subject can be non-invasively evaluated by both pressure drop and energy loss values along the PA.