Ferdian, ESuinesiaputra, ADubowitz, DJZhao, DWang, ACowan, BYoung, AA2026-03-252026-03-252020-05-04Frontiers in Physics, ISSN: 2296-424X (Print); 2296-424X (Online), Frontiers Media S.A., 8, 138-. doi: 10.3389/fphy.2020.001382296-424X2296-424Xhttp://hdl.handle.net/10292/208144D flow magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an emerging imaging technique where spatiotemporal 3D blood velocity can be captured with full volumetric coverage in a single non-invasive examination. This enables qualitative and quantitative analysis of hemodynamic flow parameters of the heart and great vessels. An increase in the image resolution would provide more accuracy and allow better assessment of the blood flow, especially for patients with abnormal flows. However, this must be balanced with increasing imaging time. The recent success of deep learning in generating super resolution images shows promise for implementation in medical images. We utilized computational fluid dynamics simulations to generate fluid flow simulations and represent them as synthetic 4D flow MRI data. We built our training dataset to mimic actual 4D flow MRI data with its corresponding noise distribution. Our novel 4DFlowNet network was trained on this synthetic 4D flow data and was capable in producing noise-free super resolution 4D flow phase images with upsample factor of 2. We also tested the 4DFlowNet in actual 4D flow MR images of a phantom and normal volunteer data, and demonstrated comparable results with the actual flow rate measurements giving an absolute relative error of 0.6–5.8% and 1.1–3.8% in the phantom data and normal volunteer data, respectively.© 2020 Ferdian, Suinesiaputra, Dubowitz, Zhao, Wang, Cowan and Young. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.51 Physical SciencesNetworking and Information Technology R&D (NITRD)CardiovascularBioengineeringMachine Learning and Artificial IntelligenceBiomedical Imaging49 Mathematical sciences51 Physical sciences4D flow MRIsuper resolution networkSRResNetdeep learningcomputational fluid dynamicsCFDvelocity fieldsJournal ArticleOpenAccess10.3389/fphy.2020.00138