Segmentation of Aortic Flow in Real-Time Spiral Phase-Contrast MRI for Assessment of Stroke Volume Variability

Gustavo Maia Queiroz Mendona¹, Joao L. A. Carvalho¹

Real-time spiral phase contrast MRI is uniquely capable of non-invasively measuring the stroke volume associated with each individual heartbeat. The quality of these measurements depends on how good the segmentation of the interface between aortic wall and lumen is. Such process is hampered by the low-resolution and low-contrast nature of real-time images. Image segmentation using traditional techniques has proven inconsistent. We propose a novel model-based approach, which focuses on separating the aortic flow from neighboring flows, instead of aiming a millimetrically-accurate segmentation of the walllumen interface. This approach is robust, even when this interface is not visually distinguishable.