Comparison of four-dimensional flow magnetic resonance imaging and particle image velocimetry to quantify velocity and turbulence parameters

Abstract

Although recent advances of four-dimensional (4D) flow magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has introduced a new way to measure Reynolds stress tensor (RST) in turbulent flows, its measurement accuracy and possible bias have remained to be revealed. The purpose of this study was to compare the turbulent flow measurement of 4D flow MRI and particle image velocimetry (PIV) in terms of velocity and turbulence quantification. Two difference flow rates of 10 and 20 L/min through a 50% stenosis were measured with both PIV and 4D flow MRI. Not only velocity through the stenosis but also the turbulence parameters such as turbulence kinetic energy and turbulence production were quantitatively compared. Results shows that 4D flow MRI velocity measurement well agreed with the that of PIV, showing the linear regression slopes of two methods are 0.94 and 0.89, respectively. Although turbulence mapping of 4D flow MRI was qualitatively agreed with that of PIV, the quantitative comparison shows that the 4D flow MRI overestimates RST showing the linear regression slopes of 1.44 and 1.66, respectively. In this study, we demonstrate that the 4D flow MRI visualize and quantify not only flow velocity and also turbulence tensor. However, further optimization of 4D flow MRI for better accuracy might be remained.