Dr Pankaj Garg, a newly appointed NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Cardiology, has been awarded an Academy of Medical Sciences starter grant (£25,400) to research advanced imaging tools for cardiovascular diagnosis and intervention. Working under the mentorship of Professor Jim Wild and Professor Julian Gunn, Pankaj's grant, entitled “Whole heart, four-dimensional flow magnetic resonance imaging for accurate assessment of right and left heart flow haemodynamics”, will develop four-dimensional flow (4D) flow models to accurately predict cardiovascular haemodynamics and to develop novel therapeutic targets in heart disease patients.
Non-invasive, 4D flow cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) allows accurate quantification of intra-cardiac flow (Figure 1). It circumvents issues of geometrical assumptions and through-plane motion of 2D mitral inflow metrics on Doppler echocardiography and 2D phase-contrast MRI.