Florence Trinity Baluyot1, Vijay Shamdasani2, Hunter Underhill1, Baocheng Chu3, William S. Kerwin3, Chun Yuan3
1Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; 2Ultrasound Investigation, Philips Healthcare, Bothell, WA, USA; 3Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
MRI and ultrasound gives complimentary information that can be used to study flow effects on atherosclerotic lesions in order to improve detection and understanding. Plaque inner and outer walls and flow artifacts were identified in MRI using multi-contrast weighting and compared against flow patterns derived using Vector Doppler imaging. An initial data set of thirty-five MRI slices for five subjects yielded a P-Value of 0.001 when using Fishers Exact Test to compare presence of MRI flow artifact against flow reversal in Ultrasound. These findings suggest combining information from MRI and ultrasound can assist reviewers discriminate between flow artifact and plaque.
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