A super-fast MRI scan has been developed that can diagnose heart failure in just eight minutes, British researchers have announced.
Researchers at the University of East Anglia say their technology uses MRI to create detailed 4D flow images of the heart, providing a precise image of the heart valves and blood flow inside the heart.
Lead researcher Dr Pankaj Garg, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School and an honorary consultant cardiologist at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH), said the 4D flow MRI enables them to examine heart flow in three directions over time.
The research team worked with General Electrics Healthcare to investigate the reliability of Kat-ARC, a new technique that uses super-fast methods to scan the flow in the heart.
They found this non-invasive technique halves the scanning time, takes about eight minutes, and can measure the peak velocity of blood flow in the heart accurately and precisely.
The new technology, highlighted in *European Radiology Experimental*, was tested on 50 patients with suspected heart failure at NNUH and at the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in Sheffield.
The project was funded by the Wellcome Trust and other collaborators were: the University of Sheffield, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, the University of Dundee, GE Healthcare (Germany), Pie Medical Imaging (the Netherlands), and the National Heart Centre and Duke-NUS Medical School (both Singapore).
Assadi H, Uthayachandran B, Li R et al. Kat-ARC accelerated 4D flow CMR: clinical validation for transvalvular flow and peak velocity assessment. *European Radiology Experimental* September 2022
Leave a Reply