Petter Dyverfeldt1, John-Peder E. Kvitting1, Gabriella Boano2, Carljohan Carlhll1, Andreas Sigfridsson1, Ulf Hermansson2, Ann F. Bolger3, Jan Engvall1, Tino Ebbers1
1Linkping University and Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV), Linkping, Sweden; 2Linkping University Hospital, Linkping, Sweden; 3University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
The blood flow associated with mitral valve insufficiency is difficult to assess using current clinical MRI methods. In this study, MRI turbulence measurements were applied in five patients with severe mitral valve regurgitation. In all the patients, elevated turbulence intensity was found in the atrium along the course of the regurgitation jet. The results suggest that MRI is consistently able to provide measurements of turbulence intensity in patients with this clinically important valve lesion. This may open up for novel perspectives on risk stratification of patients with valve disease and could be useful in the evaluation of different treatment strategies.
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