Reliability and reproducibility of trans-valvular flow measurement by 4D flow magnetic resonance imaging in acute myocardial infarct patients: two centre study

Background Time resolved 3-dimensional 3-directional phase contrast (PC) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (4D flow MRI) has advantage over 2-dimensional PC-MRI as it allows accurate quantification of stroke volumes (SV) using retrospective valve tracking and subsequent reconstruction of the transvalvular flow velocity throughout the cardiac cycle. However, the reliability of this method has not been tested between centres with different observers or in acute myocardial (AMI) patients with regional wall motion abnormality. We hypothesize that the SV assessed by 4D flow MRI using valve tracking flow assessment through the mitral valve (MV) and the aortic valve (AV) is reproducible among two observers from different sites.