2D plot visualization of aortic vortex flow in cardiac 4D PC-MRI data

Abstract

Aortic vortex flow is a strong indicator for various cardiovascular diseases. The correlation of pathologies like bicuspid aortic valves to the occurrence of such flow patterns at specific spatio-temporal positions during the cardiac cycle is of great interest to medical researchers. Dataset analysis is performed manually with common flow visualization techniques such as particle animations. For larger patient studies this is time-consuming and quickly becomes tedious. In this paper, we present a two-dimensional plot visualization of the aorta that facilitates the assessment of occurring vortex behavior at one glance. For this purpose, we explain a mapping of the 4D flow data to circular 2D plots and describe the visualization of the employed λ2-vortex criterion. A grid view allows the simultaneous investigation and comparison of multiple datasets. After a short familiarization with the plots our collaborating cardiologists and radiologists were able distinguish between patient and healthy volunteer datasets with ease.