Vector flow imaging (VFI) is a technology that utilizes ultrasound to visualize the direction and speed of blood flow, independent of the orientation of the ultrasound probe. It works in any direction and at any angle, but its application in clinical practice has been slow because of limitations of the technology. Now researchers at the University of Arkansas, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Stanford, and Cincinnati Children’s have for the first time used vector flow imaging to analyze the hemodynamics in children with congenital heart defects.
Doppler ultrasound can provide a good deal of information about the velocity of blood flow, but its beam has to be aligned with vessel being scanned and in some cases, such as during echocardiography scans, lack of alignment results in lack of useful information. Using vector flow imaging, though, the researchers were able to map out the blood flow within the hearts of small children, as well as piglets. The piglets, unlike the children, were dissected following the imaging to evaluate how the results from VFI matched the real cardiac anatomy.
The researchers used the bk5000 ultrasound from BK Medical, the company that been perfecting vector flow imaging for a number of years.
“Vector flow imaging technology is not yet possible in adults, but we have demonstrated that it is feasible in pediatric patients,” said Morten Jensen, associate professor of biomedical engineering at the U of Arkansas, and one of the researchers involved in the study. “Our group demonstrated that this commercially available technology can be used as a bedside imaging method, providing advanced detail of blood flow patterns within cardiac chambers, across valves and in the great arteries.”
Study in journal Progress in Pediatric Cardiology: Real-time transthoracic vector flow imaging of the heart in pediatric patients…
Product info page: Vector Flow Imaging…