4D Flow MRI, 3D Phantoms Benefit Atrial Fibrillation Patients

April 18, 2023 — Conclusions from an award-winning Scientific On the web Poster presented all through the 2023 ARRS Yearly Assembly at the Hawaiian Convention Heart suggest that accurately occluded remaining atrial appendages (LAAs) could existing maximal reduction in remaining atrial (LA) move stasis and thrombogenicity, supplying a medical purpose for the course of action in patients with atrial fibrillation. 

Pointing out the paucity of information in atrial fibrillation (AF) populations relating to the actual movement dynamic improvements ahead of and following percutaneous remaining atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO), “we aimed to consider LA circulation dynamics for pre-occluded, properly occluded, and improperly occluded LAAs in sufferers with AF through four-dimensional (4D) move MRI and 3D printed phantoms,” said Min Jae Cha from the section of radiology at Chung-Ang University Clinic in Seoul, South Korea. 

In this ARRS Annual Assembly Summa Cum Laude award-profitable On the net Poster, daily life-sized LA phantoms of an 86-yr-aged individual with persistent AF ended up 3D printed from cardiac CT images. Location a custom-built, shut-loop movement circuit, a pump delivered pulsatile pulmonary venous movement. Employing a 3-T scanner (Philips Achieva TX), 4D circulation MRI was acquired, then analyzed by using MATLAB-dependent software program. Movement metrics involved with blood stasis and thrombogenicity—stasis volume described by velocity threshold (|V| < 3 cm/s), time-averaged wall shear stress (WSS), and endothelial cell activation potential (ECAP)—were compared among three conditions. 

According to Cha et al., different spatial distributions, orientations, and magnitudes of flow were directly visualized within the three LA phantoms using 4D flow MRI. The time-averaged volume and percentage of LA flow stasis were consistently minimized in the correctly occluded model (70.82 ml, 38.97%), followed by the incorrectly occluded (73.17 ml, 39.02%) and pre-procedural (79.11 ml, 39.71%) models. 

Additionally, the pre-occluded model was associated with the lowest surface-and-time-averaged WSS (0.048 Pa), followed by incorrectly (0.059 Pa) and correctly (0.072 Pa) occluded models. Conversely, ECAP was lowest in the correctly occluded model (4.004 Pa-1), followed by the incorrectly- (4.792 Pa-1) and pre-occluded (5.861 Pa-1) models. 

For more information: www.arrs.org 

Find more ARRS23 Annual Meeting coverage here