Purpose: To determine whether pulmonary arterial and venous transit times measured by time-resolved magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) can be used as a diagnostic tool for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).
Materials and methods: Twelve patients with confirmed PAH and 10 healthy volunteers were scanned with Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval. Time-resolved MRA and 2D phase contrast flow images of the pulmonary vasculature were acquired. Pulmonary arterial and venous transit times (PaTT and PvTT) and pulmonary valve flow (PVF) were obtained. Pulmonary arterial and pulmonary venous blood volumes (PaBV and PvBV) were calculated as the product of flow and transit time.
Results: Patients with PAH showed statistically significant increases in PaTT and PvTT (P < 0.0004, P < 0.05, respectively) compared to controls. PaBV (165.2 ± 92.0 mL) was significantly higher in PAH subjects than controls (97.0 ± 47.1 mL) (P < 0.04), whereas PvBV (127.9 ± 148.9 mL) of PAH subjects had no significant increase from those of healthy controls (142.5 ± 104.1 mL) (P < 0.38).
Conclusion: Pulmonary arterial transit times measured using time-resolved MRA can be used as a simple, noninvasive metric for detection of altered hemodynamics in PAH.
Copyright © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.