Non-triggered quantification of central and peripheral pulse-wave velocity

Purpose. stiffening of the arteries results in increased pulse-wave velocity (pwv),the propagation velocity of the blood. elevated aortic pwv has been shown to correlate with aging and atherosclerotic alterations. we extended a previous non-triggered projection-based cardiovascular mr method and demonstrate its feasibility by mapping the pwv of the aortic arch,thoraco-abdominal aorta and iliofemoral arteries in a cohort of healthy adults. materials and methods. the proposed method simultaneously excites and collects a series of velocity-encoded projections at two arterial segments to estimate the wave-front velocity,which inherently probes the high-frequency component of the dynamic vessel wall modulus in response to oscillatory pressure waves. the regional pwvs were quantified in a small pilot study in healthy subjects (n = 10,age range 23 to 68 yrs) at 3t. results: the projection-based method successfully time-resolved regional pwvs for 8-10 cardiac cycles without gating and demonstrated the feasibility of monitoring beat-to-beat changes in pwv resulting from heart rate irregularities. for dul-slice excitation the aliasing was negligible and did not interfere with pwv quantification. the aortic arch and thoracoabdominal aorta pwv were positively correlated with age (p < 0.05),consistent with previous reports. on the other hand,the pwv of the iliofemoral arteries showed decreasing trend with age,which has been associated with the weakening of muscular arteries,a natural aging process. conclusion: the pwv map of the arterial tree from ascending aorta to femoral arteries may provide additional insight into pathophysiology of vascular aging and atherosclerosis. © 2011 langham et al; licensee biomed central ltd.