Rapid left-to-right shunt quantification in children by phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging combined with sensitivity encoding

Background-Parallel imaging by sensitivity encoding (SENSE) may considerably reduce scan time in MRI. For rapid flow quantification in children with congenital heart disease, we evaluated phase-contrast MRI (PC-MRI) techniques combined with SENSE. Methods and Results-In 22 pediatric patients (mean age, 7.2+/-6.2 years) with cardiac left-to-right shunt, blood flow rate in the pulmonary artery (Q(p)) and ascending aorta (Q(s)) and flow ratio Q(p)/Q(s) were determined by PC-MRI with SENSE reduction-factor 2 and 3 (SF-2 and SF-3). Additionally, we used PC-MRI with higher spatial in-plane resolution (1.6 X 2.1 versus 2.3 X 3.1 mm) with and without SF-3. Results were compared with a recently validated standard PC-MRI protocol and tested in vitro using a pulsatile flow phantom. Reduction of signal averages from 2 to 1 and application of SENSE accelerated flow measurements by a factor of 3.5 (5.2) using PC-MRI with SF-2 (SF-3) compared with standard PC-MRI. For blood flow rate through the pulmonary artery and aorta, as well as for the Q(p)/Q(s) ratio we found negligible differences of +/-3%, lower limits of agreement (mean+/-2 SD) of -7% to -18%, and upper limits of agreement (mean+/-2 SD) of +3 to +24%, demonstrating good agreement with standard PC-MRI. Mean Q(p)/Q(s) ratio by standard PC-MRI was 1.69+/-0.45 (range, 1.27 to 2.79). Interobserver variability was low, and high accuracy was confirmed in vitro for all protocols. Conclusions-PC-MRI for flow quantitation may be combined with SENSE to achieve a substantive reduction of scanning time. In children with left-to-right shunt, Q(p)/Q(s) quantification is possible by PC-MRI+SF-3 in < 60 seconds. Use of higher in-plane resolution did not improve measurement results.