In the field of cardiovascular disease, hemodynamic evaluation is essential. Indeed, blood flow patterns can trigger biological response such as angiogenesis and vascular or myocardial remodeling1-3. Non-invasive imaging techniques such as duplex ultrasonography or phase-contrast MRI are commonly used. The first is limited by ultrasonographic windows and the second provides flow evaluation only in selected planes. Volumetric phase-contrast MRI (4D Flow) provides anatomical representation as well as a flow modelisation of an entire selected volumein which flow assessment can be performed4. This techniqueallows a comprehensive...

Twenty-two patients referred for cardiac MRI were enrolled. Each patient underwent (a) asingle-breath-hold 2D phase-contrast sequence (2D-PC-MRI) at the level of the sino-tubular junction for the quantification of the aortic forward volume and (b) a prototype free-breathing compressed sensing 4D Flow (CS4DF, Siemens Healthcare) sequence, covering the entire thoracic aorta. A first analysis was performed by a single observer (O1). Segmentation of 2D-PC-MRI was performed on a clinical workstation (Syngo.via, Siemens Healthcare). A dedicated prototype software was required for CS4DF post-processing in order to assess...

All acquisitions were successfully completed. Themean scan time was4.16 ± 0.84 min. Mean age was 49.4± 21.0 y/o (range: 18 to 85) and 18 patients were males. Based on 2D-PC-MRI which was considered as the gold standard, an aortic regurgitation lower than 5 % was assessed in 12 patients, a mild regurgitation higher than 5 % in 5 patients, a moderate regurgitation in 3 patients and a severe regurgitation, above 40 %, in 2 patients. Amoderate aortic stenosis was present in 2 patients. Considering 2D-PC-MRI...

Our study demonstratesthat CS4DF is a robust and fast option to quantify aortic forward volume, with excellent intra- and inter-observers agreement. Although a trend for regurgitation underestimation was assessed, most of the measured reverse flow were not clinically relevant. However, the impact of this underestimation needs to be evaluated in a larger cohort of patients suffering from moderate to severe regurgitation in order to assess the impact of this difference on patient management. Only 2 patients were suffering from a moderate aortic stenosis and the...

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