Assessment of flow and hemodynamics in the carotid artery using a reduced TE 4D flow spiral phase-contrast MRI

4D flow MRI is a powerful technique for quantitative flow assessment and visualization of complex flow patterns and hemodynamics of cardiovascular flows. This technique results in more anatomical information and comprehensive assessment of blood flow. However, conventional 4D PC MRI suffers from a few obstacles for clinical applications. The total scan time is long, especially in large volumes with high spatial resolutions. Inaccuracy of conventional Cartesian PC MRI in the setting of atherosclerosis and in general, disturbed and turbulent blood flow is another important challenge. This inaccuracy is the consequence of signal loss, intravoxel dephasing and flow-related artifact in the presence of disturbed and turbulent flow. Spiral k-space trajectory has valuable attributes which can help overcome some of the problems with 4D flow Cartesian acquisitions. Spiral trajectory benefits from shorter TE and reduces the flow-related artifacts. In addition, short spiral readouts with spiral interleaves can significantly reduce the total scan time, reducing the chances of patient motion which may also corrupt the data in the form of motion artifacts. In this paper, the accuracy of flow assessment and flow visualization with reduced TE 4D Spiral PC was investigated and good agreement was observed between the spiral and conventional technique. The systolic mean velocity, peak flow and the average flow in CCA and ICA of normal volunteers using 4D spiral PC MRI showed errors less than 10% compared to conventional 4D PC MRI. In addition, the scan time using spiral sequence was 3:31 min which is half of the time using conventional sequence.