Why the study?
In vivo assessment of wall shear stress is challenging, and experimental validation systems are needed to assess improvements in 4D Flow MRI acquisitions and derived wall shear stress computing.
An LDV-based experimental setup provides a reliable method to validate 4D Flow MRI-derived wall shear stress calculations, demonstrating that higher spatial resolution does not improve WSS accuracy without concurrent noise reduction.
Technical validation of 4D Flow MRI WSS remains preliminary; leaves open clinical translation pending in vivo correlation studies.
Wall Shear Stress (WSS) has been demonstrated to be a biomarker of the development of atherosclerosis. In vivo assessment of WSS is still challenging, but 4D Flow MRI represents a promising tool to provide 3D velocity data from which WSS can be calculated. In this study, a system based on Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV) was developed to validate new improvements of 4D Flow MRI acquisitions and derived WSS computing. A hydraulic circuit was manufactured to allow both 4D Flow MRI and LDV velocity measurements. WSS profiles were calculated with one 2D and one 3D method. Results indicated an excellent agreement between MRI and LDV velocity data, and thus the set-up enabled the evaluation of the improved performances of 3D with respect to the 2D-WSS computation method. To provide a concrete example of the efficacy of this method, the influence of the spatial resolution of MRI data on derived 3D-WSS profiles was investigated. This investigation showed that, with acquisition times compatible with standard clinical conditions, a refined MRI resolution does not improve WSS assessment, if the impact of noise is unreduced. This study represents a reliable basis to validate with LDV WSS calculation methods based on 4D Flow MRI.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Castagna et al. (2021) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: