# Volumetric Echocardiographic Particle Image Velocimetry for Grading the Severity of Mitral Valve Regurgitation

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE · 2023 · $645,279

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Optimal management of patients with mitral regurgitation (MR) involves accurate grading for the disease timely
intervention, proper follow-up, and patient-specific therapeutic decision-making. A recent study in France showed
that although MR was clearly identified and coded in the patients' discharge summary, only less than 10% of
those admitted with significant MR underwent a valve intervention within 1 year. This leaves a vast majority of
the patients untreated. They found that the rate of mitral valve intervention was significantly low for both primary
and secondary MR. This high level of undertreatment is even more striking considering that all individuals were
inpatients, admitted to French hospitals with relatively easy access to cardiologists. Alternatively, a significant
and unfortunate outcome of inaccurate grading of MR severity is over-treatment of the patients whose grade of
valve regurgitation has been erroneously reported. Every so often patients undergo unnecessary corrective
procedures due to misgrading their MR. The under- or over-treatment is a significant and unfortunate outcome
of inaccurate grading of MR severity.
Volumetric Echo-PIV visualizes and quantifies 3D blood flow velocity field from echocardiographic data based
on the governing equations of the flow. Given the ubiquitous availability of the echocardiography systems, V-
Echo-PIV is inexpensive, accurate, and accessible. Funded by 1 R01 HL153724-01A1, we are currently studying
the feasibility of V-Echo-PIV as a tool to assess right ventricular (RV) flow for diagnosis and follow up of patients
with pulmonary hypertension (PH). These patients require frequent monitoring, often including repeated invasive
right heart catheterization (RHC) due to their clinical status, which has led to a significant healthcare burden.
Noninvasively derived RV hemodynamics indices from V-Echo-PIV that correlate with PH patients' clinical
condition could significantly reduce the cost and morbidity of the current invasive tests.
Based on our recent success in characterizing the RV blood flow in the PH patients and healthy control subjects,
this supplement award seeks to study the feasibility of V-Echo-PIV to quantify MR and thus eliminate intra- and
inter-operator variability in grading MR. V-Echo-PIV utilizes matrix array ultrasound transducers of current
standard echocardiography systems and requires only a few heartbeats (up to 4) to process and obtain the blood
flow's 3D velocity vector field in the heart chambers. We hypothesize that by measuring the 3D velocity field in
the left ventricle and left atrium via V-Echo-PIV, it is possible to characterize the flow conversion zone in 3D and
accurately grade MR. To achieve the proposed research objectives, the following specific aims are set to be
accomplished in a 1-year duration of the project:
SPECIFIC AIM 1: Devise a protocol for high-speed contrast 3D echocardiography to image the flow in the left
heart to charac...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10847737
- **Project number:** 3R01HL153724-02S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Arash Kheradvar
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $645,279
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2022-01-15 → 2026-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10847737

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10847737, Volumetric Echocardiographic Particle Image Velocimetry for Grading the Severity of Mitral Valve Regurgitation (3R01HL153724-02S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10847737. Licensed CC0.

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