Thomas A. Hope1, Michael D. Hope1,
D Craig Miller2, Michael Markl3, John-Peder E. Kvitting2,
Charles B. Higgins1, Robert J. Herfkens4
1Department of Radiology, University of
California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States; 2Department
of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States; 3Department
of Diagnostic Radiology, Medical Physics, University Hospital Freiburg,
Freiburg, Germany; 4Department of Radiology, Stanford University,
Stanford, CA, United States
12
patients status post valve sparing correction of ascending aortic aneurysms
were imaged with 4D flow and were followed up for an average of 5 years. One patient had abnormal flow patterns in
the ascending and descending aorta.
Subsequently during the follow-up period, this patient developed a
Stanford Type B aortic dissection. This is the first long-term follow-up
study to correlate adverse outcomes to in vivo visualized abnormal flow
patterns using MRI. Although this
study is limited due to the small number of patients, it does suggest that
abnormal flow patterns in the thoracic aorta may provide prognostic
information.