Can a Single Phase Contrast Aortic Flow Acquisition Be Used to Define a Surrogate Marker of Cardiac Index?

Frederique Frouin^1,2, Muriel Lefort^1,2, Mourad Bensalah^1,3, Alain De Cesare^1,2, Claire Pellot-Barakat^1,2, Elie Mousseaux^1,3, Alain Herment^1,2

Providing that the underestimation (15%) of the cardiac index would be compensated, the single PC aortic acquisition could be an interesting alternative to a whole cardiac acquisition to estimate the cardiac index. The automated processing of aortic acquisition enables to drastically reduce the operators intervention. It would enable a reduction of the acquisition duration, which is highly desirable in combined vascular and brain protocols applied to an aging population. Moreover, ascending aortic strain and pulse wave velocity in the aortic arch (requiring a supplementary sagittal acquisition), which are considered as promising biomarkers of vascular aging, could be equally estimated easily.