Evaluation of Circulation, Γ, as a quantifying metric in 4D flow MRI

Background 4D flow MRI provide a wonderfully rich set of data for diagnosis and understanding of cardiac disease. Interpretation of this wealth of data can be challenging and it may be desirable to simplify it to make analysis manageable. We have observed interesting rotational behavior of blood in the aorta in a number of cardiac diseases. Circulation (Γ) is a metric used in fluid dynamics to quantify the rotational components of flow. This metric has not been reported before for 4D flow MRI and may provide a measurement that can be used diagnostically. The purpose of this work is to define the normal range of Γ in the ascending aorta and investigate its reproducibility.