Reproducibility study of four-dimensional flow MRI of arterial and portal venous liver hemodynamics: influence of spatio-temporal resolution.

Purpose: To evaluate influence of variation in spatio-temporal resolution and scan-rescan reproducibility on three-dimensional (3D) visualization and quantification of arterial and portal venous (PV) liver hemodynamics at four-dimensional (4D) flow MRI. Methods: Scan-rescan reproducibility of 3D hemodynamic analysis of the liver was evaluated in 10 healthy volunteers using 4D flow MRI at 3T with three different spatio-temporal resolutions (2.4 x 2.0 x 2.4 mm(3), 61.2 ms; 2.5 x 2.0 x 2.4 mm(3), 81.6 ms; 2.6 x 2.5 x 2.6 mm(3), 80 ms) and thus different total scan times. Qualitative flow analysis used 3D streamlines and time-resolved particle traces. Quantitative evaluation was based on maximum and mean velocities, flow volume, and vessel lumen area in the hepatic arterial and PV systems. Results: 4D flow MRI showed good interobserver variability for assessment of arterial and PV liver hemodynamics. 3D flow visualization revealed limitations for the left intrahepatic PV branch. Lower spatio-temporal resolution resulted in underestimation of arterial velocities (mean 15%, P < 0.05). For the PV system, hemodynamic analyses showed significant differences in the velocities for intrahepatic portal vein vessels (P < 0.05). Scan-rescan reproducibility was good except for flow volumes in the arterial system. Conclusion: 4D flow MRI for assessment of liver hemodynamics can be performed with low interobserver variability and good reproducibility. Higher spatio-temporal resolution is necessary for complete assessment of the hepatic blood flow required for clinical applications. (C) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.