Probabilistic Flow Connectivity Mapping

Ola Friman¹, Anja Hennemuth¹, Andreas Harloff², Jelena Bock³, Michael Markl³, Heinz-Otto Peitgen¹

Standard techniques for visualizing and quantifying flow data obtained with phase contrast (PC) MRI treat the measurements as if they were free of noise. This practice may lend the results a false sense of precision. This work contributes a flow connectivity mapping algorithm that models the noise in PC MRI velocity measurements and visualizes the flow uncertainty as a probabilistic flow distribution. New probabilistic measures such as the assignment of likelihoods to flow pathways to evaluate mixing of blood, or to quantify embolization probabilities in stroke and infarction, are also envisaged.