Premium
Determining exercise‐induced blood flow reserve in lower extremities using phase contrast MRI
Author(s) -
Nagaraj Hosakote M.,
Pednekar Amol,
Corros Cecilia,
Gupta Himanshu,
Lloyd Steven G.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of magnetic resonance imaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.563
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1522-2586
pISSN - 1053-1807
DOI - 10.1002/jmri.21336
Subject(s) - phase contrast microscopy , blood flow , contrast (vision) , magnetic resonance imaging , medicine , cardiology , physical medicine and rehabilitation , radiology , computer science , physics , optics , artificial intelligence
Purpose To study the changes in limb blood flow during lower extremity exercise using phase contrast (PC) MRI in normal volunteers. Materials and Methods Healthy volunteers performed plantar flexion exercise (<1 W) for four minutes. Flow velocity was measured using cardiac‐gated, cine PC‐MRI sequences (fast gradient recalled echo [GRE]; multishot echo planar imaging [EPI]) on a 3T scanner at the level of the superficial femoral artery (SFA): 1) preexercise; 2) immediately postexercise; 3) during three minutes recovery; and 4) postrecovery. Results At rest there was a triphasic flow waveform in the SFA. During exercise it changed to a monophasic pattern with an increase in total flow; there were variable changes in vessel size and flow velocity. The waveform regained the triphasic pattern during recovery. The exercise‐induced flow reserve (FR) was 167 ± 90%. Conclusion PC‐MRI demonstrates that the resting triphasic flow waveform transforms into a monophasic pattern with submaximal exercise and returns to baseline with recovery. This increase in the regional blood flow allows for measurement of exercise‐induced FR in the SFA. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2008;27:1096–1102. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.