Realistic aortic phantom to study hemodynamics using MRI and cardiac catheterization in normal and aortic coarctation conditions.

Purpose: To design and characterize a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-compatible aortic phantom simulating normal and aortic coarctation (AoCo) conditions and to compare its hemodynamics with healthy volunteers and AoCo patients.

Materials And Methods: The phantom is composed of an MRI-compatible pump, control unit, aortic model, compliance chamber, nonreturn, and shutoff valves. The phantom without and with AoCo (13, 11, and 9 mm) was studied using 2D and 3D phase-contrast data and with a catheterization unit to measure pressures.

Intrahepatic portal vein blood volume estimated by non-contrast magnetic resonance imaging for the assessment of portal hypertension.

Purpose: To investigate the feasibility of estimating the portal vein blood volume that flows into the intrahepatic volume (IHPVBV) in each cardiac cycle using non-contrast MR venography technique as a surrogate marker of portal hypertension (PH).

Materials And Methods: Ten patients with chronic liver disease and clinical symptoms of PH (40% males, median age: 54.0, range: 44-73 years old) and ten healthy volunteers (80% males, median age: 54.

Multiple echo multi-shot diffusion sequence.

Purpose: To measure both transversal relaxation time (T2 ) and diffusion coefficients within a single scan using a multi-shot approach. Both measurements have drawn interest in many applications, especially in skeletal muscle studies, which have short T2 values. Multiple echo single-shot schemes have been proposed to obtain those variables simultaneously within a single scan, resulting in a reduction of the scanning time.

Three-dimensional dual-phase whole-heart MR imaging: clinical implications for congenital heart disease.

Purpose: To identify which rest phase (systolic or diastolic) is optimum for assessing or measuring cardiac structures in the setting of three-dimensional (3D) whole-heart imaging in congenital heart disease (CHD).

Materials And Methods: The study was approved by the institutional review board; informed consent was obtained. Fifty children (26 male and 24 female patients) underwent 3D dual-phase whole-heart imaging.

Therapeutic seal of approximal incipient noncavitated carious lesions: technique and case reports.

Sealing of incipient carious lesions in occlusal surfaces has been shown to arrest the progression of the lesions. In this report, we describe for approximal surfaces with noncavitated incipient lesions the clinical procedures for sealant application illustrating this minimally invasive method with 3 clinical cases and scanning electron microscopic images.