Fig. 3

Examples of 4D Flow CMR visualization techniques, demonstrated on intracardiac flow data acquired in a healthy volunteer. In these examples, flow visualization is overlaid onto a 2D bSSFP acquisition in a three-chamber view. a Pathlines are the trajectories that massless fluid particles would follow through the dynamic velocity field and are suitable for studies of the path of pulsatile blood flow over time. Here, the transit of blood through the left ventricle (LV) is shown by pathlines emitted from the mitral valve at the time point of peak A-wave and traced to the time point of early systole systole. The timing of the ECG (T_ECG) is included for reference. b-d Streamlines are instantaneously tangent to the velocity vector field and are useful to visualize 3D velocity fields at discrete time points. Here, streamlines generated in a long-axis plane show parts of the intracardiac velocity field at the time points of b peak early filling (E-wave), c peak late filling (A-wave), and d peak systole