Magnetic Resonance Imaging Subsystem for Evaluation of Valvular Heart Disease

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging has been shown to be one of the best technologies for the evaluation of cardiovascular pathologies. The broad application of this promising technology is expected to significantly impr ove the treatment of patients with heart disease. Valvular heart diseases are a common set of problems that need to be considered in any patient with heart complaints because of extensive symptomatic overlaps with other diseases. While MRI has been demonst rated to be very helpful in quantitating all aspects of this condition beyond conventional echocardiography, no commercial software package has been able to translate that advantage into routine clinical care. The aim of this application is to develop a co mmercial robust cardiovascular subsystem that will enable the broad application of this technology to the clinical realm. Specifically, during Phase I of this proposal, HeartVista will develop and test a quantitative cardiovascular valvular evaluation soft ware that integrates into an environment for rapid cardiovascular imaging. This package will include real-time evaluation of cardiac output, real-time ventricular function evaluation, real-time color flow quantitation, and real-time doppler measurements. We further expect to collect 40 patient examinations for feedback and analysis in anticipation of full productization. Under previous NIH grant support through Stanford University, we have established real-time rapid imaging sequences for the assessment o f cardiac output and color-flow mapping. We have also established the utility and accuracy of rapid whole-heart ventricular function assessment. Our goal in this proposal is to integrate these methods into a robust valvular heart disease system to realize the clinical potential of cardiac MRI in the quantitative evaluation of common cardiac complaints. Generally, our methods concern 7 obtaining adequate temporal resolution, spatial coverage, and contrast production for color-flow imaging using customized pu lse sequences and hardware to reduce data acquisition time, 7 developing a underlying real-time imaging platform that allows the seamless real-time integration of receiver coil functions, pulse sequences, and post-processing and display that optimizes the workflow for studying patients with valvular disease. This proposal focuses on developing and validating this combined examination to provide the clinician a robust and intuitive complete quantitative cardiac evaluation package that can be performed comfor tably in about 1/2 hour.