Quantification of pulmonary regurgitation in patients with repaired Tetralogy of Fallot by 2D phase-contrast MRI: Differences between the standard method of velocity averaging and a pixel-wise analysis.

Objectives: To compare the values of pulmonary regurgitation in patients with repaired Tetralogy of Fallot quantified from two-dimensional phase-contrast data, by using a new pixel-wise analysis and the standard velocity-averaging method.

Design: Quantitative in silico and in vivo analysis.

Setting: Hospital Sótero del Río. The magnetic resonance images were acquired using a Philips Achieva 1.5T scanner.

Participants: Twenty-five patients with repaired Tetralogy of Fallot who underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging requested by their referring physicians were included in this study.

Main Outcome Measures: Using a computational fluid dynamics simulation, we validated our pixel-wise method, quantifying the error of our method in comparison with the standard method. The patients underwent a standard two-dimensional phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging acquisition for quantifying pulmonary artery flow. Pulmonary regurgitation fraction was estimated by using our pixel-wise and the standard method. The two-dimensional flow profiles were inspected looking for simultaneous antegrade and retrograde flows in the same cardiac phase. Statistical analysis was performed with t-test for related samples, Bland-Altman plots, and Pearson correlation coefficient.

Results: Estimation of pulmonary regurgitation fraction using the pixel-wise analysis revealed higher values compared with the standard method (39 ± 16% vs. 30 ± 22%, p-value <0.01). Eight patients (32%) had a difference of more than 10% between methods. Analysis of two-dimensional flow profiles in these patients revealed simultaneous antegrade and retrograde flows through the pulmonary artery during systole-early diastole.

Conclusion: Quantification of pulmonary regurgitation fraction in patients with repaired Tetralogy of Fallot through a pixel-wise analysis yields higher values of pulmonary regurgitation compared with the standard velocity-averaging method.