Motivation

Blood pressure is a common biomarker for the stratification of cardiac diseases, routinely assessed by cuff measurements. Assessment of blood pressure, and pressure drops, in our central circulatory system (aorta and main vessels) is used for the diagnosis of aortic coarctation, obstruction of the outflow track of the ventricle or a stenotic valve, or the coronary flow reserve. Nowadays accurate assessment of these central pressure drops is only feasible through invasive catheter recordings.

Our approach

CMIB is developing non-invasive methods for the extraction of detailed spatio-temporal maps of central blood pressure differences. Computational modelling techniques are applied to estimate the pressure that best explain observed blood velocity from advanced imaging protocols (phase-contrast MRI). This technique also unveils additional information with potential diagnostic value, the three components that contribute to blood pressure differences: unsteady (temporal acceleration of blood), convective (spatial acceleration of blood) and viscous (energy loss due to friction).

Technologies

• Advanced imaging: phase-contrast MRI
• Image segmentation
• Computational methods

Further reading

• Aortic Relative Pressure Components Derived from Four-Dimensional Flow Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance
• Non-invasive pressure difference estimation from PC-MRI using the work-energy equation
• A finite-element approach to the direct computation of relative cardiovascular pressure from time-resolved MR velocity data