THE ROLE OF PHASE CONTRAST VELOCITY IMAGING IN MYOCARDIAL CONTRACTILITY ANALYSIS

The assessment of cardiovascular disease requires a full understanding of myocardial mechanics at a regional level. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging is emerging as an important clinical tool because of its safety, versatility, and the high quality images it produces that allow accurate and reproducible quantification of cardiac structure and function. Recent improvements in scanner hardware and pulse sequence design have allowed for higher velocity sensitivity leading to direct in vivo myocardial velocity measurements. With a velocity vector available at each voxel, the method has significant advantages over other parallel techniques. In this paper, recent work on phase contrast velocity imaging is reviewed- from pulse sequence design to biomechanical modeling. The challenges pertaining to the use of velocity data in potential clinical applications are discussed.