Highly accelerated free-breathing real-time 2D flow imaging using compressed sensing and shared velocity encoding

Objectives 2D real-time (RT) phase-contrast (PC) MRI is a promising alternative to conventional PC MRI, which overcomes problems due to irregular heartbeats or poor respiratory control. This study aims to evaluate a prototype compressed sensing (CS)-accelerated 2D RT-PC MRI technique with shared velocity encoding (SVE) for accurate beat-to-beat flow measurements. Methods The CS RT-PC technique was implemented using a single-shot fast RF-spoiled gradient echo with SVE by symmetric velocity encoding, and acquired with a temporal resolution of 51- 56.5 ms in 1-5 heartbeats. Both aortic dissection phantom (n = 8) and volunteer (n = 7) studies were conducted using the prototype CS RT (CS, R = 8), the conventional (GRAPPA, R = 2), and the fully sampled PC sequences on a 3T clinical system. Flow parameters including peak velocity, peak flow rate, net flow rate, and maximum velocity were calculated to compare the performance between different methods using linear regression, intraclass correlation (ICC), and Bland-Altman analyses. Results Comparisons of the flow measurements at all locations in the phantoms demonstrated an excellent correlation (all R-2 >= 0.93) and agreement (all ICC >= 0.97) with negligible means of differences. In healthy volunteers, a similarly good correlation (all R-2 >= 0.80) and agreement (all ICC >= 0.90) were observed; however, CS RT slightly underestimated the maximum velocities and flow rates (similar to 12%). Conclusion The highly accelerated CS RT-PC technique is feasible for the evaluation of flow patterns without requiring breath-holding, and it allows for rapid flow assessment in patients with arrhythmia or poor breath-hold capacity. Clinical relevance statement The free-breathing real-time flow MRI technique offers improved spatial and temporal resolutions, as well as the ability to image individual cardiac cycles, resulting in superior image quality compared to the conventional PC technique when imaging patients with arrhythmias, especially those with atrial fibrillation.

Automated summary

This study evaluated a compressed sensing accelerated 2D real-time phase-contrast MRI technique for accurate beat-to-beat flow measurements without requiring breath-holding. The results showed good measurement consistency and correlation in both phantom and healthy volunteer studies, with slightly underestimated maximum velocities and flow rates.