Real-time interactive color flow MR imaging

Real-time interactive color flow magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is a combination of real-time MR imaging and color encoding of velocity-induced phase angle. Flow-compensated (FC) and flow-encoded (FE) images are acquired continuously by using gradient echoes and a 12-msec repetition time. Each image is reconstructed within 200 msec of acquisition, and the FC magnitude image is displayed in gray-scale format. The phase difference between the reconstructed FC and FE images, a difference proportional to velocity along the flow-encoding direction, is encoded in color and superimposed on the gray-scale FC image. Magnitude and phase information are thus presented simultaneously. The viewer may interactively adjust many acquisition parameters during data acquisition. Experimental results of phantom and in vivo human studies validate the method. Characteristics of the color flow MR imaging technique are compared with those of duplex color ultrasound.