Evaluation of pre- and post-surgery flow within the nasal cavity via 4D magnetic resonance velocimetry

The nasal cavity is the uppermost part of the respiratory system, which acts as a conduit that heats and humidifies inspired air. Understanding the fluid dynamics within this nasal cavity is challenging due to the complex internal flow passages, which make measurement of local velocities difficult. In this study, 4-dimensional magnetic resonance velocimetry (4D MRV) is utilized to measure the complex flow structure within the nasal cavity, before and after turbinoplasty and septoplasty surgeries are performed. 3-dimensional flow fields are obtained at each time phase of the respiration cycle, and large differences are observed before and after surgery. The experimental results are also compared with results from computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and show good agreement. From these findings, the improvement due to surgery can be evaluated. This process may allow 4D MRV to be utilized as the state-of-the-art method for nasal surgery evaluation.