Mitralvalveregurgitation: accurateblood flow quantification withMRI

whichisthemethodofchoice todiagnose patients selected forvalve repair or replacement. Withmagnetic resonance imaging, information ontheintraventricular blood flowcan beobtained. Several scanning techniques have attempted toassess theregurgitant flow. These techniques either do notdirectly assess the complete flowthrough theMV,ortheydonot measure theflowatthelocation ofthevalve. Aim.Toinvestigate theaccuracy ofanovel method using three-directional velocity-encoded MRI to acquire thetransvalvular blood flowdirectly from theintraventricular bloodflowfield, alsorepresenting theregurgitant flowduring systole. Methods. Tenvolunteers without cardiac valvular disease wererecruited. Thetransvalvular MV flow volumewasmeasured withthree-directional velocity-encoded MRI(3-dir MV flow).