28 research outputs found
Magnetic resonance volume flow and jet velocity mapping in aortic coarctation
AbstractObjectives. Nuclear magnetic resonance (MRI) velocity mapping was used to characterize flow waveforms and to measure volume flow in the ascending and descending thoracic aorta in patients with aortic coarctation and in healthy volunteers. We present the method and discuss the relation between these measurements and aortic narrowing assessed by MRI. Finally, we compare coarctation jet velocity measured by MRI velocity mapping with that obtained from continuous wave Doppler echocardiography.Background. The development of a noninvasive imaging method for morphologic visuslization of aortic coarctation and for measurement of its impact on blood flow is highly desirable in the preoperative and postoperative management of patients.Methods. Magnetic resonance imaging phase-shift velocity mapping was used to measure ascending and descending aortic volume flow in 39 patients with aortic coarctation and in 12 healthy volunteers. Magnetic resonance imaging was also used for anatomic and peak jet velocity measurements. The latter were compared with those available from continuous wave Doppler study in 40% of the patients.Results. Whereas ascending aortic volume flow measurement did not show significant differences between the patient and healthy control groups, volume flow curves in the descending aorta did show significant differences between the two groups. Peak volume flow (mean ± SD) was 10.6 ± 5.3 liters/min in patients and 19.6 ± 4.7 liters/min in control subjects (p < 0.001). Time-averaged flow was 2.5 ± 0.9 liters/min in patients and 3.9 ±1.1 liters/min in control subjects (p < 0.05). The descending/ ascending aorta flow ratio was 0.47 ± 0.19 in patients and 0.64 ±0.08 in control subjects (p < 0.05). These variables correlate well with the degree of aortic narrowing. Peak coarctation jet velocity measured by MRI velocity mapping is comparable to that obtained from continuous wave Doppler study (r = 0.95).Conclusions. We established normal ranges for volume flow in the descending aorta and demonstrated abnormalities in patients with aortic coarctation. These abnormalities are likely to be related to resistance to flow imposed by the coarctation and could represent an additional index for monitoring patients before and after intervention
Faint High Latitude Carbon Stars Discovered by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Methods and Initial Results
We report the discovery of 39 Faint High Latitude Carbon Stars (FHLCs) from
Sloan Digital Sky Survey commissioning data. The objects, each selected
photometrically and verified spectroscopically, range over 16.6 < r* < 20.0,
and show a diversity of temperatures as judged by both colors and NaD line
strengths. At the completion of the Sloan Survey, there will be many hundred
homogeneously selected and observed FHLCs in this sample. We present proper
motion measures for each object, indicating that the sample is a mixture of
extremely distant (>100 kpc) halo giant stars, useful for constraining halo
dynamics, plus members of the recently-recognized exotic class of very nearby
dwarf carbon (dC) stars. Motions, and thus dC classification, are inferred for
40-50 percent of the sample, depending on the level of statistical significance
invoked. The new list of dC stars presented here, although selected from only a
small fraction of the final SDSS, doubles the number of such objects found by
all previous methods. (Abstract abridged).Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal, Vol. 124, Sep.
2002, 40 pages, 7 figures, AASTeX v5.
The Metallicity-Luminosity Relation, Effective Yields, and Metal Loss in Spiral and Irregular Galaxies
I present results on the correlation between galaxy mass, luminosity, and
metallicity for a sample of spiral and irregular galaxies having well-measured
abundance profiles, distances, and rotation speeds. Additional data for low
surface brightness galaxies from the literature are also included for
comparison. These data are combined to study the metallicity-luminosity and
metallicity-rotation speed correlations for spiral and irregular galaxies. The
metallicity luminosity correlation shows its familiar form for these galaxies,
a roughly uniform change in the average present-day O/H abundance of about a
factor 100 over 11 magnitudes in B luminosity. However, the O/H - V(rot)
relation shows a change in slope at a rotation speed of about 125 km/sec. At
faster V(rot), there appears to be no relation between average metallicity and
rotation speed. At lower V(rot), the metallicity correlates with rotation
speed. This change in behavior could be the result of increasing loss of metals
from the smaller galaxies in supernova-driven winds. This idea is tested by
looking at the variation in effective yield, derived from observed abundances
and gas fractions assuming closed box chemical evolution. The effective yields
derived for spiral and irregular galaxies increase by a factor of 10-20 from
V(rot) approximately 5 km/sec to V(rot) approximately 300 km/sec, asympotically
increasing to approximately constant y(eff) for V(rot) > 150 km/sec. The trend
suggests that galaxies with V(rot) < 100-150 km/sec may lose a large fraction
of their SN ejecta, while galaxies above this value tend to retain metals.Comment: 40 pages total, including 7 encapsulated postscript figures. Accepted
for publication in 20 Dec 2002 Ap